All Was Not Well
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: Harry was massively disappointed in how things were going after the final battle. Nothing had changed, it only looked like it on the outside. So he decides to change the past to prevent certain things from happening. Being the Master of Death has its perks. Time-travel, Harry / OC
1. All Was Not Well

**This is my special Christmas story for you. It is a time-travel story of another kind than the normal ones I think. I always wondered why Harry didn't do more to take away the power-base of the Death Eaters and Voldemort and only worked on getting stronger in those. So I decided to write this story to be published this Christmas. Happy reading.**

**Disclaimer for the whole story: I own nothing of Harry Potter, but the story idea is mine.**

**Merry Christmas.**

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**All was not well**

Harry Potter sat alone under his invisibility cloak on the roof of Ravenclaw Tower. He had taken one of the school brooms to get away. His victory had a bad aftertaste. So many had died. And for what? Voldemort was dead, true, but he didn't die by Harry's hand. He died through a fluke, a backfiring curse because Harry had coincidentally disarmed Draco Malfoy at Malfoy Manor and taken his wand in a struggle, giving him ownership over the dangerous wand. He had lived and Voldemort had died because the Elder Wand, the wand he now held in his hands, didn't work against his master. Talk about irony. It wasn't even two days after the last battle and there were already whispers.

Whispers about the Ministry returning to their old ways. That wasn't what he had fought for. He wanted more rights for non-purebloods, more chances. Better treatment of magical creatures. But the old pureblood houses had the money. It was something the light had massively ignored all the time. It had always been said that when Voldemort was gone things would be much better again. But that was only an illusion. How long had it taken for Voldemort to take over the Ministry? He had lain low for a year to collect his strength and prepare his army. Then one year of guerrilla tactics until he got rid of Dumbledore. The one person who could match him in a duel. After that, only two months. Two fucking months. After thirteen years of peace and the chance to clean house after Voldemort's first fall the Ministry had done nothing. They had failed the people and soon the people without money, without pure blood would be in a bad position again.

And he wasn't really in any different position. While he had got a letter from Gringotts that thanks to the Ministry paying for the damages that his, Ron's and Hermione's flight with the dragon had caused, including the dragon itself, his gold hadn't been confiscated, but they didn't want him as a customer anymore. He had to go there and empty his vault to collect all of his holdings within two weeks. Bastards. Ungrateful bastards. It was thanks to him and his friends that they got back control over their bank and didn't have to follow the orders of the Death Eaters anymore.

He sighed. His friends were another sore topic. It seemed that again he had been forgotten. Ron was, if he wasn't snogging Hermione, bragging about his part in the fall of Voldemort. Hermione was busy organising her return to Hogwarts to take her NEWTs. As if that couldn't wait. And Ginny was pestering him all the time. He didn't know why, but his feelings for her had drastically cooled down over the last few days. It had been similar while Ron was gone from the search. That was one thing he needed to think about. Now that he finally had the time to think. If he was honest, nothing would change in the wizarding world after Voldemort's fall.

History was repeating itself. There was the fallen head of the pureblood movement, but his followers kept their money. Like it had been with Grindelwald. Many members of the Knights of Walpurgis, Grindelwald's version of the Death Eaters, had been able to worm their way out of punishment by paying bribes to the political leaders. A hero was praised for defeating the leader and either he could play along and change small things for the better or he could try and be denied living in peace. Both options weren't really enticing. The problems this time lay too far in the past. The thirteen years of corruption couldn't simply been forgotten.

Bagnold had given too many Death Eater a 'You get out of prison card' if they only gave her enough gold or names of others that could be put in prison to look good in the eyes of the public. The Lestranges had been the exception of that rule. Bagnold could as well have been a Death Eater herself. Her failure to clean house had laid the foundation of the victory of the pureblood fanatics. Voldemort was only the head of the snake. And another head would sprout now that this one had been cut off.

Fudge had allowed the infection to turn into a full blown disease with no chance of treatment. Kingsley was a better choice for Minister and his first measures had been good, but Harry had no delusions that he could win any election. He had no financial backing as the money was with the old houses that had supported Voldemort. They wouldn't even need to lie low this time. They were in control of the Ministry. Their people were in the important positions. Kingsley would have the position for as long as the rich purebloods would need to get their acts under Voldemort's reign covered up.

After all, only a few Death Eaters were known by name and if anybody knew those that were less known, there were ways to shut them up. That had happened often enough in the past. Money could go a long way. And the most infamous Death Eaters had fallen in the Battle of Hogwarts. If they weren't arrested by now they would get away. And many masked Death Eaters had run after Voldemort's fall, using the happiness of the winners to get away undetected. Who could say who they really were? No, this wasn't a victory, it was hollow. It would crumble before the year was over.

The main culprit, as unbelievable as many would see it, was Albus Dumbledore. He had let too many Death Eaters get away with a slap on the hand, preaching forgiveness and second chances. You didn't give murderers and rapists, torturers and sadists second chances. Those crimes were unforgivable and deserved to be punished accordingly. You didn't let them run free. Not if you had veritaserum at your disposal.

Next were of course the Ministry and Voldemort himself. The corruption and incompetency on sides of the Ministry and the long-term planning and enticing of the rich purebloods in society by Voldemort did their part too. Harry hadn't realized it before, but all the businesses in Diagon Alley were owned by purebloods. All potion ingredient farms belonged to purebloods. Same for clothes manufacturers, wand component suppliers and so on. The whole European magical businesses were to ninety-five per cent in pureblood hands. The British were the worst concerning blood status mania, but the other countries were only slightly better in letting others get financial power. Oh, you could get better positions like in the Ministries as a muggleborn or halfblood. Certain magical creatures were also much better tolerated, but getting a chance to open a business required money. And that was in the hands of old pureblood houses that guarded their power jealously.

No, the only way to change anything would be going back in time. He had taken his time to think after he had woken up from his sleep after the battle. And he knew that he needed more information about his new powers, if they existed, from being the Master of Death. So he had gone to Dumbledore's office and summoned all books concerning the topic. It was assumed that if you really managed to collect all three Deathly Hallows, you were able to go back in time. The Master of Death stood outside of the normal mortal restrictions. Harry was pondering if the gain would be worth the risks. He could at most return to the day he was born. His limitation was his own lifespan. So he couldn't stop Voldemort's rise to power. That would have been by far his most favourite way. The thing he did not know how to face was the chance to prevent his parents' death. It would make things incalculable, but then again so would his whole time-travelling if he did it.

What if Voldemort would get away in 1981 because he changed the past too much? He had been winning back then. But then again, he had defeated, even if by a fluke, him with much more power behind him. At least back in 1980 Voldemort didn't have the Ministry under his control. The aurors were trained much better and more numerous. He also knew what the horcruxes were and where they were hidden. That was one advantage he could fully utilize. On top of that he had the money to counter the Death Eaters' plans to fully take over the economy. Many businesses had been bought by them after the first war when the former owners had been forced to sell because they didn't have any money to rebuild them.

It was a good idea when he thought about it. He had knowledge of the future, could find out exactly which enterprises were the most profitable and buy them before the Death Eaters could. He would only need a trunk like Moody's keyed to only him. He would probably get it for free for killing Voldemort. Perks of being a hero. Perhaps two were even better. One for his money, one for books and other things he would need. There were some inventions that would make a lot of money that had been made after Voldemort's fall. The wolfsbane potion not being the least of them. There had to be books that described the most successful businesses and the most incredible discoveries of the wizarding world since 1980. And for the muggle world too. Having a Business Empire on which he could fall back if the wizarding world didn't work out completely would be smart. It would also make a lot of things easier.

Most wizards didn't have a clue about muggles; look at Mr Weasley, the supposed expert on them at the Ministry. He didn't even know the most basic things about money, and the numbers were printed on the bills and the coins. And if he went back to the day of his birth he would have a little over a year to get everything started. He could look for the books on the wizarding economy of Britain in particular and Europe on top of it at Flourish & Blott's and every well-stocked muggle book store would have the others. He knew that there were books that summarized economic history. He would also need to get all the material for seventh year down. Even if he was in the past, he would need his NEWTs to ever get anywhere. Nobody took a wizard without NEWTs serious.

He would have to see about a fake identity that couldn't be seen through easily. Somebody who had existed, but died without anybody knowing until much later or never. There were such cases; he had heard Hermione talk about them when they were alone on the search. She had needed something to do and talk about that distracted her from Ron's betrayal. And true identifications like passports in the muggle world didn't exist in the wizarding world. Everybody would be able to see that he was a Potter. But his grandfather Charlus had had a younger brother who had gone missing when Charlus had still been in his thirties. Family tapestries didn't show the date of death, only the date of birth so nobody had been able to say if Charlus brother had died or not.

And the Potter tapestry had been destroyed in a Death Eater attack on the manor in which Charlus and Dorea Potter had died. So nobody would be able to call a lie if Harry pretended to be the son of the missing younger brother who had died when he had been a toddler. Charlus brother had been eleven years younger than him, so the deception would be able to work. After all, every blood test would confirm Harry as a Potter. And as long as nobody forced him to do a complete heritage test, he would be safe. And honestly, who wanted to know more than that he was family when everybody kept secrets?

His decision was made. He would go back and change the future for the better. This world was too messed up, especially here in Britain. His feelings for Ginny were probably the results of long-term exposure to love potions from the Weasleys. Otherwise the sudden drop of them when Ron had left and now that Kreacher made very sure to check all his food and drinks for poison and said potions from crazy fans. It hurt, but he would get over it. He had the chance to change things. He would be able to even get a better childhood for his younger self. First he needed to put a fake Elder Wand into Dumbledore's grave. Then he should take all the books he needed from Dumbledore's private collection. After all, he wouldn't miss them being dead.

He would go into the forest, it should be easy to find the Resurrection Stone if he started from Hagrid's hut, and complete the Deathly Hallows properly. In a few months he should be able to get all preparations done. It was May now. Kingsley had informed him that NEWTs and OWLs for all students that were interested in taking them would be held late in August. That way he could see what topics were covered. Perhaps they even had the old tests from 1980. It was worth a try. He took the broom and flew under his invisibility cloak to the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

Getting into the Ministry archive for examinations that were older than ten years had been incredibly easy. A few simple copy spells and he had the complete exam questions. Now he would only have to make sure that he got the practical side down. But with knowing the topics that was a manageable task. Interestingly he found Arithmancy to be quite easy. A lot like muggle maths and that was the one subject he had kept up with during the holidays as Dudley was too stupid to do his own summer homework and Harry had been forced to do it. After all, precious Dudders couldn't be forced to waste some of his all too short holidays after a stressful school year. Well, at least Harry hadn't been totally out of the loop from the muggle world that way. Maths had also been his best subject at primary school.

So Harry decided that despite never taking the class to sit that NEWT as well. Having more NEWTs couldn't hurt after all. He would also add Muggle Studies. The exam was a joke for anybody having lived in the muggle world for the time until Hogwarts. Hermione could have aced it without ever opening a book. Not that she would have done so. That wasn't in her personality. The Creatures that were tested in Care of Magical Creatures were also manageable thanks to Hagrid bringing in more dangerous ones than appropriate. So now Harry's revision timetable consisted of Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. That would give him eight NEWTs, a really high number that would open many doors.

He had overheard a conversation between Ron and Ginny. He had been right. First Ginny had given him a love potion that acted slowly over months and was therefore harder to detect than outright giving him something like amortentia or the potions Fred and George sold at their shop. Ron had then continued to give him the potion while they were hunting horcruxes. All to get them the Potter and Black fortune. Ginny had got impatient before sixth year when Harry didn't act jealous when she mentioned having chosen Dean as her boyfriend. And Dumbledore had been in on the plan. Him as Ginny's husband had been the payment Molly had demanded for the Weasley's supporting Dumbledore. He really should have listened to Aberforth.

Well, he would prevent his younger self being caught in Dumbledore's net. The one he would miss most was Hermione. Even if she had got more distant since the last battle. Perhaps it was her new relationship with Ron.

* * *

Two weeks into August Harry got his answer to many of his questions. The pureblood faction had been even faster than he had thought they would be. A new marriage law forced halfbloods and muggleborns to marry purebloods to repopulate the fallen numbers of witches and wizards. Hermione had been quickly engaged to Ron to avoid having to marry someone like Malfoy. He had to make his time-travel happen earlier now. He had everything ready. Two trunks with seven compartments full of money and family heirlooms shrunk to the size of matchboxes. One trunk with books of the same size. One special trunk that was a complete apartment. He had asked for it when he was asked for a reward for killing Voldemort. He had got the other three for the price of two from the happy trunk maker. A good deal, really.

All three Hallows were in his possession. He knew how to easily make a fortune in 1980 in both worlds. The only thing left for him to do was getting away before the pureblood girls could end their bidding over him. He was the most eligible bachelor of Great Britain, but as he was a halfblood he couldn't refuse a spouse that was chosen for him under the new marriage law. So on the night of the 15th August 1998 Harry Potter vanished. When in the morning of the 20th the owl with the letter from the Ministry arrived to inform him that he would have to marry Daphne Greengrass within three months he wasn't there anymore. Only a letter to Hermione was left behind and she would only find it at the end of September when she came looking for him to see how he had taken the choice of his future wife.

He wrote to her that he had used his powers to travel to a place where he could prevent this whole madness. She understood, but it hurt her that she would never see her best friend again in her life. Harry Potter had gone back in time. And if he had managed his goal he had gone back eighteen years to the 1st August 1980.

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**That was the start and you will get more updates soon.**


	2. NEWTs

**So, here is chapter two of my Christmas story. Happy reading and thanks to all of you that already left reviews.**

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**NEWTs**

The Department of Magical Education, DME for short, was filled with young witches and wizards that were sitting their OWL or NEWT exams. Most were home-schooled, but some wanted to have exams in subjects they didn't take at Hogwarts and couldn't fit into their study schedule when they were taken there. They only had to apply for them before starting the exams at Hogwarts. It was few who did though. Some who had for example learned Arithmancy or Ancient Runes over the summers as their families were good in them and they had wanted to take other subjects and fitting so many classes into one time table was difficult. One young man was especially ambitious. Madam Marchbanks had seen for which subjects he had applied to sit his NEWTs and she wondered how he would do. After all, eight NEWTs was extraordinary. Normally students took five or six. But it was his decision and what kind of educator would she be to suppress a young man's desire to learn?

Over this whole week the exams were taken. This was the third day of testing and so far they had done Transfiguration and Ancient Runes on Monday, Charms and Arithmancy on Tuesday and today were Potions, Muggle Studies and History of Magic. Tomorrow would be Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination and Astronomy and Friday would conclude the testing with Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.

Madam Marchbanks had first thought that James Potter was playing a prank on her to celebrate the birth of his first son, but the young man that looked so much like him had introduced himself as Hadrian Potter. Turned out that he was James Potter's cousin, the son of her old friend Charlus' long thought dead younger brother Edward. Well, Edward had died seventeen years ago when Hadrian was just a year old. It had been an accident. Sadly the boy's mother had also died from an illness three years later and Hadrian was left to grow up with his mother's family, whose name he had worn till today. They had died in a Death Eater attack five months ago. As they didn't trust Dumbledore, Hadrian had been home-schooled. He had learned the rest of his classes' material in self-study and now he was here. She had found notes on his OWLs under his former name.

* * *

Harry had made sure that his story had no deplorable holes. Hadrian Vaisey had died five months ago with his parents in a Death Eater attack. He hadn't been healthy enough to go to Hogwarts so he had been home-schooled. The Vaiseys were living really secluded and the three that had died, they had been on the way to Gringotts when the attack happened, had been the last ones. It had been one example in his history books, the one that didn't involve goblin wars, of families dying in Voldemort's attacks, even if they were only innocent bystanders, at his height of power in the first war. It was perfect. Nobody knew Hadrian Vaisey, so Hadrian Potter could take his place. With the goblins selling the Vaisey property for a bargain, he had bought it and now he was warding it using all kinds of wards he had found in the books from Dumbledore's collection and the Black family library.

Dark as the bastards had been, they were fantastic at protecting their property. And in these days nobody cared how you secured your home. The house and the surrounding land, about six hectares of plain with an old countryside house with a house elf, had taken about 40.000 galleons from his funds. A bargain indeed as normally a property of that size would have easily cost him 150.000 galleons. But paying directly for it and a ten thousand galleon bonus for the goblin in charge to arrange a quick transaction dealt with that issue. After all, it was better for Gringotts to have sold the land without the Ministry finding out about anything, claiming it under the law of extinct lines and selling it to the highest bidder, putting the profit into their own pockets, the goblins seeing nothing of it. And the goblins could only keep the extinction of lines a secret for a year. After that a treaty forced them to give the Ministry the information.

In his past Lucius Malfoy had bought the property from the Ministry after he had been 'proven' to be an imperius victim and turned it into a highly profitable acromantula farm. Acromantula silk was highly pricey and favoured by the high society of the wizarding world in their clothes. If Hagrid was smarter he could sell the silk from the nets in the Forbidden Forest for a fortune, but he would never do that to his 'friend' Aragog. Now Lucius wouldn't be able to do that. The best part was, as he hadn't technically broken into Gringotts the goblins had no problems with serving him again. Though he only opened a business vault. His company, MoD Enterprises, would be the cover for his plans. In this vault he placed 60.000 galleons. The rest of his money, not that the goblins would be informed about it any time soon if ever, would be otherwise secured. There was no way that he would trust the nasty, ungrateful buggers more than necessary.

He also exchanged another 60.000 galleons into pounds which gave him 300.000 pounds. He knew that the exchange rate was too little, but the Ministry was fixing them, so even if the goblins would have wanted to they couldn't have given him more. But it was enough to get started there too with all the information he had from the future. The goblins were only told that he planned to do business in both worlds and therefore needed to open an account at a muggle bank as well as at Gringotts. In the biggest book store in London he had looked up the books that described the most successful companies at the Stock Exchange in detail.

On top of opening the vault he set up a secrecy agreement that included that the goblins, if they ever revealed the identity of the owner of MoD Enterprises or any information on Hadrian's personal property and heritage would be fined with 1.000.000 galleons. They would think a lot before risking that. They were too greedy. For Hadrian Potter couldn't be found out and this was the one weak spot in his disguise.

Armed with the 300.000 pounds he went to the most renowned investment bank and opened an investment account as well as a giro account in his name. A confundus charm took care of the missing documents; he planned to get them through the Ministry after getting his NEWTs. He bought shares of all the most successful companies. In a year he would have tripled his investment he knew. It might be unfair to other investors, but why should he care? He had a world to save.

Right now he finished the written part of the Potions NEWT. Knowing the questions beforehand was such a good way to ensure success. Hermione would have chewed him out for cheating. Well, technically it was, but he still needed to learn the material. He just knew what to learn and with the limited amount of time that he had had to prepare for this it was simply necessary. He had spent most of his supposed seventh year at Hogwarts on the run from the Ministry, Voldemort and his Death Eaters and trying to find horcruxes without having proper information and training. He deserved a little advantage for once.

He now had fifteen minutes till the Muggle Studies exams would start. His practical exam in Potions would be after a short lunch break. His exams the two days before had gone well. With no distractions to his learning since May he had got a lot of material covered. And he knew what to learn. So using the fact that Hogwarts was being rebuilt and OWLs and NEWTs were taken at the Ministry he had sneaked back into the castle and used the library. None of the house elves had thought anything about it. Kreacher kept him supplied with food and drinks. The old elf had told him he would still recognize him as his master in the past after Walburga Black died, which had been in 1983. His Kreacher wanted to stay at Hogwarts for his last years and Hadrian while sad to leave him had let him.

* * *

James Potter waited in front of the doors of the Ministry examination rooms. He had heard a rumour about a young wizard that looked terribly like him sitting the NEWTs in eight classes as a home-schooled student. He wanted to know what was going on. It was now about lunchtime and his possible relative would come out for the break before taking the Potions practical exams. Finally the doors opened. James looked around and found the young man he had been looking for. The similarity was shocking. It was like looking into a slightly distorted mirror.

Hadrian saw his father immediately. That hadn't been planned. Not this early. How should he react? Well, it would be best to face this offensively.

"Hello, uhm, did you wait for me?" Hadrian asked.

"Yes, I heard that somebody that could be my twin was taking the NEWTs." James answered. "Naturally I was curious."

"Then you are James Potter I presume? Madam Marchbanks accused me of pranking her to celebrate my son's birth by taking the NEWTs under a slight transformation." Hadrian said, seemingly trying to make heads or tails of this new arrival.

"She did? That would have been a good idea for a prank, I admit. I am indeed James Potter. And who are you?" James asked grinning now.

"My name is Hadrian Potter." Hadrian answered, somewhat enjoying the stunned face of his father. "Are you by any chance related to Charlus Potter?"

"He was my father." James said sadly. The death of his parents through the Death Eaters last year still hurt. "Why do you ask?"

"Because my aunt and uncle, whom I grew up with after my mother died when I was four, said that Charlus Potter was my father's older brother. My father was Edward Potter, but I can't remember him. He died in an accident when I was one year old." Hadrian explained.

"That would make you my cousin." James exclaimed astonished. "Why did I never hear of you? Dad searched so long for Uncle Edward."

"Really? I don't know why my father never contacted your father, but after Mum died I was taken in by the Vaiseys and they treated me like their own son. I also took my OWLs as Hadrian Vaisey. Sadly my aunt and uncle died in a Death Eater attack a few months ago. I decided to take back my father's name as thinking about them still hurts too much right now." Hadrian told with a sad look on his face his made-up story.

It wasn't difficult to get the right mourning look. He only had to remember the people that had died in his time in the battle of Hogwarts and before. There were too many friends he had lost to Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

"I see. Well, with your looks nobody could help thinking of you as a Potter anyway. That hair is traitorous." James declared, trying to cheer his cousin up a bit.

"Don't I know it? Untameable and always looking as if you just came out of your bed." Hadrian complained realising that his father was trying to cheer him up.

"What do you think about visiting my wife and me for dinner? I would like to get to know my cousin." James suggested.

"Uhm, okay, that sounds nice. Though I would like to wait until I am finished with my NEWTs. At the moment I revise every evening. I can't wait until I finish on Friday." Hadrian said wistfully.

"I understand, NEWTs are tough. What about Saturday evening?" James asked hopefully.

"That works for me. Where should I meet you?" Hadrian asked surprised that his father had invited him so quickly.

He wouldn't have thought he would trust a stranger, no matter if he was his cousin, so quickly. Especially not with a new-born baby in the house.

"I will meet you at the visitor's entrance of the Ministry at seven. Sorry about that, but I will need to do some security checks before I take you with me to my home." James said.

"That's no problem. I would have thought you to be crazy to trust a stranger in these dangerous times if you didn't, James." Hadrian replied.

"Thanks for understanding, Hadrian. Well, I don't have much family left on my father's side and most of my mother's family is dark. So I hope we can get along." James explained.

"I can understand that. I will be at the entrance at seven." Hadrian agreed. "Don't be cross with me, but I need to get something to eat before my Potions practical."

"No problem. Good luck for your remaining NEWTs." James said.

"Thanks, bye." Hadrian said and went to the room that was set up for the examinees to eat and rest between their exams.

"Bye, Hadrian." James said.

In the break-room Hadrian finally relaxed. That had gone better than he had feared. He had made contact with his father and could probably influence him in some way. Perhaps even save him and his mother. He would have to see how things developed. Now he only needed to maintain his cover.

* * *

Saturday evening Hadrian apparated to the visitors' entrance looking around carefully. He had made some inquiries about James Potter with Madam Marchbanks as he was sure his father would have done the same. After all it was only common sense to be careful in these dangerous times. Just yesterday the McKinnons had been murdered. Hadrian knew that they had been friends with his parents, though he couldn't show that. He heard a low crack of apparition and he held his wand ready, but hidden in his pocket. It wouldn't do to openly use it in the muggle world except he didn't have a choice. It was James. He would have asked security questions if he would know something only James would know, but it would be strange for him to know something like that.

"You're on time, that's good." James said. "I will just do some detection spells; feel free to do the same."

"In a muggle area? Isn't that too dangerous?" Hadrian asked.

"Notice-me-not wards around the entrance area for twenty metres. It wouldn't do after all if the muggles get too curious about the telephone booth we're using to let visitors inside." James explained happy to see Hadrian be cautious.

Hadrian nodded and did some revealing charms. There were no glamour charms on James, but it still left the possibility of polyjuice potion. But for now he would shock his father with a bit of knowledge that would be incredibly valuable in the war and had only been found out last time around the end when Snape had turned traitor on the dark side.

"Would you mind showing me your bare left forearm, James?" Hadrian asked.

"Huh? How would that help?" James asked confused.

"I want to see if you have a Dark Mark on your forearm." Hadrian answered.

James shrugged and pushed his sleeve up, showing the clean arm, Hadrian mirrored the action.

"Thanks, when my aunt and uncle were killed, I was there too, but I managed to find cover fast enough. I saw a man touch a Dark Mark on his forearm and shortly after the Death Eater apparated in and threw up anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards. Thanks to my cover I was able to get away uninjured, but my aunt and uncle weren't as lucky. They were hit by killing curses that the Death Eaters fired into the crowd without a care for who they hit. They didn't even stop before children." Hadrian spat disgusted.

"Hadrian, that's really important information. I didn't know that Death Eaters could be identified by a visible mark on their arms. I'll have to tell my boss, Mr Crouch, and Professor Dumbledore." James exclaimed excitedly.

Hadrian nodded. Perhaps this would help to get a better grip of the Death Eaters. They needed to get rid of as many of them as possible. And Dumbledore was the wrong one to do the job. In this situation the ruthless Crouch, if tempered a bit and given a push in the right direction was the better man to do the necessary things.

* * *

Hadrian reached James and Lily's home by side-along apparition. It made sense to keep the location a secret. Though Hadrian still recognised Godric's Hollow. Never would he forget that Christmas Eve of 1997. James led him inside the cottage and showed him where he could place his cloak.

"Lily, we're here." James called out.

"Five minutes, James, I'm just changing Harry's diapers." Lily called back from upstairs.

"Your son's name is Harry?" Hadrian asked chuckling.

"Yes. Why is that funny?" James asked back.

"Oh, it's just that Harry is my nickname. That's why I thought it was funny." Hadrian answered.

"That indeed is a funny coincidence. Though I will keep calling you Hadrian. Otherwise it gets confusing and calling you the older Harry and my son the younger Harry would be too much of a mouthful.

"True." Hadrian agreed and took a seat in the living room. "How old is Harry?" He thought how strange that question sounded.

"Just a week. He was born 31st July. That isn't your birthday as well, is it?" James asked.

Hadrian laughed and shook his head.

"No, my birthday is 1st July. That would have been a bit much if we also shared a birthday." Hadrian commented knowing full well that they had the same birthday.

But his new identity had been born on 1st July, so he had to go with that.

"Yes, you're right." James agreed.

Then they heard steps on the stairs. Soon Lily Potter stood in the living room, her baby in her arm.

"Lily, please meet my cousin Hadrian Potter. Hadrian, this is my wife Lily and our son Harry." James introduced them.

"It's nice to meet you Hadrian." Lily said warmly.

"Nice to meet you too, Lily. And of course Harry." Hadrian replied smiling.

'Unbelievable that I was that small at one point in time.' Hadrian thought intrigued seeing his baby self.

His younger self sucked at a pacifier and held a strand of his mother's long red hair in his tiny hand. James took Harry from Lily and sat down on the couch. Hadrian felt a small pang of guilt for leaving his godson Teddy Lupin behind. But if he had success perhaps Teddy wouldn't need his godfather so much because he had his parents. And he feared what the new government would do to the son of a werewolf. He simply had to succeed. He only hoped that with him changing the past Teddy would still be born. After all, Remus and Tonks had only met through the Order. But if somebody was meant to be together they would find each other. That had also been in the book about the powers of the Master of Death. He could only hope it was true for Remus and Tonks.

* * *

The evening was really nice and Hadrian told his made-up life story while James told him of Hogwarts and his friends. Then Lily told about her family and Hadrian drank up all the stories. To finally get to know his parents was like a dream come true. He would do all he could to get those damned horcruxes before next year's Halloween. Perhaps he would succeed. Though the first step would be to get Barty Crouch to pass a law that all assets of known Death Eaters are to be sized by the Ministry and examined for dark objects. That would get him the one horcrux, Hufflepuff's cup, which he couldn't get normally. On top of that it would lose Voldemort money. All other horcruxes he could get on his own as he had already dealt with their protection in the future or knew what they were. Well, except for the precise protection of the ring, but in case they were too strong he could drop a hint to Dumbledore to let him get it out of the Gaunt shack again.

The locket would soon be in the cave. Regulus Black had died in January 1981. So that one was first on his list. Sirius had been sad that his brother had died, which Hadrian wanted to prevent. Kreacher had known the whole story about how Voldemort had placed that horcrux, so saving Regulus would be possible. Kreacher had said that it had been two months between the placement of the locket and Regulus' death. Which meant that sometime in November the horcrux would be brought there. The best time to sneak into Hogwarts to get some basilisk venom to imbue another goblin made blade would be over the Christmas holidays. Then he could get the diadem too and simply kill the basilisk. With a rooster this time! There was no way he would let that monster live even if the diary would be taken care off before it could ever be given to a student.

If Voldemort decided to sneak into the castle in disguise and let the beast free or set it to kill Dumbledore, why he hadn't done that before was beyond Hadrian honestly, he would gain a lethal weapon. Thankfully having been a horcrux for so long had left him with the ability to speak parseltongue. And a long interrogation of Draco Malfoy, who had been surprised about Hadrian's viciousness, told him that the Dark Mark on all Death Eater's arms had been put there with parseltongue. Naturally nobody knew the spell that Voldemort used. It made him look more mysterious and superior being able to use magic others couldn't. So taking it away should also be possible that way. Especially with the Elder Wand.

Then the ring in the Gaunt shack. He only needed to remember the curse on the ring. Though using it to get rid of Dumbledore close to the date where Voldemort was vanquished was tempting. He didn't like killing, but Dumbledore was doing more harm than good with his manipulations.

The diary was at Malfoy Manor, probably the secret room under the living room that Draco had boasted about in their second year at school when Hadrian and Ron had used polyjuice potion to investigate if Draco Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin. Getting the aurors there to search for an anonymous tip that Lucius was a Death Eater would be easy. For once Crouch was useful. The point he wasn't sure about was Nagini. Was she a horcrux already? It was improbable. His murder should have been the trigger for the creation of the final horcrux. So right now there should be either four or five horcruxes, normally five. The diary, the ring, the diadem and the cup were ones for sure. The locket could have been made one just before it was placed in the cave.

He now only needed basilisk venom to get started and a perfect source was hibernating under Hogwarts.

Then he forced himself back into the conversation and enjoyed the evening. No matter what, his horcrux hunt would have to wait a bit.

* * *

**So, that's it for today, next chapter will be up tomorrow.**


	3. Bringing Horcruxes Down

**And on we go with the story. Happy reading.**

* * *

**Bringing Horcruxes Down**

Over the next three months Hadrian was really busy. To his great joy his NEWT results had been really good. He had got O's in Charms, DADA, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Transfiguration and E's in COMC, Potions and Herbology. Eight NEWTs with the highest ever recorded DADA score. That kind of thing happened when you baffled the proctors with a corporeal patronus, instant high level shield charms, all defensive spells the proctor could think of, demonstrated how to take out banshees and vampires and presented a completely unheard of method to secure hiding places. If he had learned one thing last year it was hiding from Death Eaters.

While he had strictly cheated a bit on the theory parts and had known which spells would be tested, if he couldn't perform them he wouldn't have got the results he did. And he had only had three months of preparation time thanks to sacrificing his last school year to the horcrux hunt and defeating Voldemort. He deserved a little bit leeway for that. Others would have needed to repeat the whole year to take their exams. And Hadrian hadn't simply memorized the answers; he really understood the concepts behind them. After all, he didn't want to be caught out red-handed if somebody asked more questions during the practicals. So he had learned the theory as properly as he could. He was proud of his results. And those scores opened many doors for him.

He got an invitation from the auror corps, which he accepted. Being an auror had been his dream, even if it had been an idea of a disguised Death Eater. The real Moody and Sirius had supported him in his endeavour. For now it was the perfect position for him. Thanks to the war the trainees were put through shortened intensive training. Hadrian loved it. He learned so much and quickly got noticed by his trainers who in turn informed the leading aurors of his talent. It built a really good reputation for him inside the DMLE. Next to being an auror trainee he made the business investments he knew would become the most valuable in the future. There were some that were dirt cheap right now, but would shoot up in value after a few discoveries by their researchers in about one or two years.

His investment banker had asked him if he didn't want to reconsider and invest in more stable and established companies, but Hadrian had only smirked and refused. He said he had a really good feeling about those companies. As the banker couldn't force him to do anything Hadrian had bought majority shares of the four most profitable companies in the world. He knew which kinds of technology would become really popular in a few years. Computers for example and mobile phones. The pioneers in those areas would make fortunes as nothing was as good as the original and patents protected your technology for about ten years after the development. With the right investor pushing the companies there was a lot that could be won. And Hadrian simply had the money.

He did the same with businesses in the wizarding world. Under the cover of MoD Enterprises he bought small enterprises that held promise and which he knew would either become cash cows for the Death Eaters or some of the few not falling to them until the second rise of Voldemort. Those he mostly only supported with capital to make more profit. He left the original owners in charge and only presented them with the means to operate successfully. He was of the opinion the more economic power he held, the less the Death Eaters could get and the less dangerous Voldemort was. After all, if your money was limited the old pureblood lords would hesitate to pump all their gold into the dark cause. Sure, they would donate a lot, but not as much as if they had those businesses backing them and bringing in more gold constantly.

* * *

On 30th November Hadrian took a grindylow with him to the cave. The grindylow was quickly put under the imperius curse and made to drink the vile potion. Hadrian took the locket and left a stone for Voldemort. Now he only needed to prevent that Regulus came here.

* * *

Five days before Christmas Hogwarts let out for the break and Hadrian saw his chance to sneak in. He took the passage through the Honeydukes basement. Hidden under his invisibility cloak he went to the seventh floor and the Room of Requirement. Now that he knew what to look for he walked past the wall and called for the Room of Hidden Things. After having taken the way to the diadem twice before now he found it easily. It was a lot nicer to get it without having to dodge fiendfire. He put it into a sack of acromantula silk, really knowing that little detail earlier on would have made the cursed hunt so much easier. Dumbledore was a real bastard for keeping so much information that could have saved lives for himself.

He used the chance to have a good look around. There were so many useful things in here and this would probably be the one chance he had to explore it undisturbed. He spent three hours going through the room. He found some blades of goblin origin, which he of course took with him, some precious stones in a treasure box, it looked as if they had been here for over two centuries regarding the way the jewellery was styled, some old books of spells, some about ancient wards and potions and one was a real find as it described the possibilities of parseltongue and was written by Salazar Slytherin's disinherited grandson Finias Slytherin.

His next stop was Hagrid's where he borrowed a rooster. He put it under the imperius curse to not be in danger of having it refuse to crow when confronted with the basilisk. There was no way he would be bit by the basilisk again. Under his cloak he went to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Thankfully the corridors were deserted. The teachers were probably in the staff room before they left for the holidays if they left. That was an interesting idea. He could go to the Potions classroom and get Snape's old book. While the man was a bastard, his skills in Potions were incredible, as much as Hadrian loathed admitting that. When Hadrian arrived at the bathroom Myrtle was thankfully not there. It was easier to not be caught opening the Chamber of Secrets. He hissed 'open' and took his broom from the trunk which he had enlarged again before shrinking the trunk back to matchbox size for easier storage in a pocket. He took off and hovered slightly below the entrance. He hissed 'close' and the entrance was hidden again. No way would he risk somebody, worst of all Dumbledore, to find out what he was doing.

A light crystal hovering in front of him allowed him to see where he was flying. Taking the broom to fly down into the Chamber was much nicer than sliding down the dirty pipe. Not to mention that getting to the Chamber without having the ceiling cave in on you was a lot better too. He quickly reached the massive door that separated the corridor from the main chamber. He hissed to open it and then flew inside the main chamber, where he climbed from his broom after landing. The Chamber was like he remembered it to be. Huge, surrounded by creepy snake statues and crossed by water pathways on the ground. And you couldn't overlook Slytherin's statue.

He took position next to the statue so that when the basilisk came out of the mouth again, he would be behind it and not in danger of accidentally meeting its stare.

"_Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four._" Hadrian hissed in parseltongue.

The mouth of the statue opened and he heard the basilisk slithering out. Once he saw the head poking out of the hole he made the rooster crow with all its might. It echoed from the Chamber walls and obviously hurt the basilisk. It was thrashing around in pain immediately. Finally it fell from the mouth to the ground, dead.

"And this ends the horror of the Chamber of Secrets before it has even begun. Much better result than last time too." Hadrian commented happily.

He quickly set to work. He plunged a goblin made dagger, which he had found among the Black family heirlooms at Grimmauld Place in his time, into a venom sack, having looked up snake anatomy to be prepared for this task. After all, a dagger was much handier than a sword and easier to hide not to mention handle, and he needed a horcrux destroying tool that he could carry on his person if he managed to find one of the others. He put a canister under the venom sack before pulling out the dagger. The remaining venom dropped from the hole the dagger had made into the canister. He repeated the process one more time with the second venom sack. It would be a shame to waste the immense wealth the basilisk corpse represented. The diadem and the locket met a fast end by the blade of the newly enhanced dagger. Two horcruxes gone, three to go

Another spell found in the Black library let him render the rest of the corpse for useable parts. It had been designed for dragons, but it worked on the basilisk as well. It was no surprise that the Blacks had known such a spell. The vast family fortune had to have come from somewhere and you didn't get that much with just working normally. Not even after five generations of Blacks saving every galleon they could spare. No, they had to find sources that others would buy from them for lots of money and as dragons were sought after for their blood, their hide and heartstrings especially, the Blacks had created spells to safely bring a dragon down and then render it for valuable parts.

The basilisk would bring Hadrian a nice amount of money. Something that Dumbledore had never even mentioned to Hadrian. By law Hadrian as the one to kill the basilisk had been entitled to the profit that rendering the basilisk would have brought. All the useable things were now stored in a backpack that he had charmed like Hermione had done with her bag. He had two big rolls of the hide, the fangs, several litres of venom and in closed containers the eyes. Who knew when he would find a use for them? The meat was poisonous too as he knew, so it was also packed in impenetrable boxes. It wasn't suited for potions as far as he knew, but he had heard that some magical races considered basilisk meat a delicacy. He would have to see if the goblins were interested.

He searched the Chamber for more things, but he didn't find any more hidden parts. Perhaps it would take a more thorough search, but he didn't have the time for that. So he contented himself with getting the book from the Potions classroom. Slughorn was absent and so it was easy to take it out of the cupboard. After he had finished with everything he had wanted to do he went to the Astronomy Tower and flew away hidden under his cloak to get to a place from where he could apparate undisturbed.

* * *

Hadrian sat in his seat at the auror class listening to his trainer telling them that thanks to the war the Ministry had decided to give the best of them the graduation test early. They would have ten days free from normal training in the mornings to prepare. Instead they would have to study for the written part. In the afternoons mock battle scenarios would be held to give them the chance to prepare for the practical part of the exams and the following training on the job for those that passed. It had just been four months since Hadrian had started his training; normally auror training took two years at the academy and one year following an experienced auror on the job. Now they let the young cadets take their test after four months of being at the academy if they thought they were ready. It told everybody how bad things were if the cadets weren't even given a year to learn what they needed.

Well, Hadrian was called up with nine others that were the best of their class and would be given the chance to graduate early. He knew that if they passed they would enter the training on the job for at least half a year. And they would have to take some classes next to the job to learn things that would normally be covered at the academy, but weren't vital for the current climate. Meaning everything that didn't deal with dark wizards would be neglected. Thieves were delegated to the normal magical law enforcement patrol, though they didn't have much success with the really clever thieves. Criminality was sky-rocketing. No wonder with how things were going in Voldemort's favour.

* * *

Hadrian asked James to train with him for the test and his 'cousin' was happy to help Hadrian prepare. He had come to easier think of James as his cousin than his father. Probably no wonder when he was only slightly older than him. Sirius and Remus also eagerly jumped at the chance to help Hadrian train. Lily chipped in by helping to practice brewing certain potions with Hadrian while baby Harry was sleeping in his room. The test wouldn't have Hadrian brew long-term potions like polyjuice, but the Draught of Living Death would certainly come up. Not that Hadrian had any problems with that as he by now had memorized Snape's old Potions book.

He had tested all spells that were in that book and now knew what they all did. Some were harmless but useful like the muffliato and levicorpus, some downright nasty like sectumsempra. He knew now which were dark magic and he was very careful with those. He didn't want a repeat of the incident with Malfoy in the bathroom.

* * *

The test was like he had expected brutal. He had to brew seven different potions that were used by aurors regularly, had to identify five poisons and name their antidotes, had to heal common injuries that appeared regularly in their line of work and perform apparition under pressure, meaning the proctors shooting stunners at him in quick succession. He was only allowed to apparate inside the testing area, which limited the possibilities to get away massively. Thankfully he had found a little trick to make the apparition noiseless, which gave him more chances to get away. The most common mistake rookies made was apparating noisily. It gave away your landing point and an opponent could use that.

Hadrian managed to hold his own while only being allowed to shield and apparate for ten minutes, then he was hit. He still had bested all other cadets by four minutes at least. The trainers were massively impressed by that achievement. The record lay at twelve minutes and forty three seconds which had been done by Alastor Moody when he had designed this test and had been an auror for ten years already.

The written exam covered laws, reactions to certain scenarios and spells that were legal for aurors to use. They were also asked to describe creative use of five self-chosen spells and why they thought they could be especially useful in their line of work. It was much more practical oriented than the Ministry had been in Hadrian's time.

Next were demonstrations of spells, defensive and offensive and sparring fights against fully fledged aurors. It unnerved some aurors when Hadrian took down four of them before he had to really show his skill against Moody himself who wanted to see what the young cadet could really do. To say Moody was impressed was an understatement. In the end Moody took Hadrian out, but not before Hadrian had put him through one of the hardest fights he had had in some time. Moody laughed heartily and declared that he would personally train Hadrian from now on and that he had passed the test with flying colours. The Death Eaters should start worrying because when he was through with Hadrian they would meet their new nightmare. Hadrian completely agreed with that sentiment.

* * *

Hadrian went through four hellish months as the personal apprentice of Alastor Moody. He could now fully appreciate why Moody had been a legend in his time. That man was incredible. He had the power and the reaction time to take on all the highest ranking Death Eaters and would even give Voldemort problems, even if he wouldn't be able to take him down. The auror was hard as nails. Hadrian went through the most rigorous fitness program possible with working out for six hours each day. That was followed by six hours of magical training. But it worked. His speed, endurance and accuracy shot up to incredible heights and his knowledge of spells increased a lot. Moody let Hadrian go through several mock scenarios, not holding back a bit. After all, if the Death Eaters came after him they wouldn't hold back either.

* * *

Hadrian was part of the auror unit that was doing the raid at Malfoy Manor. After having survived three months under Moody he had been cleared to work with teams in the field. He would still train three and a half days of the week with the master auror, but now he had three days where he could go on missions with other aurors. He was known in the office as the new shooting star, Moody's protégée. All aurors knew how Moody was and respected Hadrian Potter a lot for getting through that training with his sanity intact. He had next to no free time, but Hadrian knew that it would pay off in the end and that he really needed this kind of training to get to the level to be able to face Voldemort himself in the end.

Today his team leader was Frank Longbottom. The raid was seen as fairly low risk, so they had sent the newbie with the team. Even if he was Moody's student, there were things you only learned with experience and the Ministry had too few aurors to burn the young ones in assignments that were too dangerous for them too early on. When they arrived at the Manor Lucius made a big show of being indignant over his treatment and swore to take legal recourse. Though that stopped when Frank demanded to see Lucius' left forearm bare.

It had been added to the standard auror procedures. When Lucius refused Frank stunned him before he could draw his wand. He did the check himself and found the Dark Mark.

"Cuff him with the magic suppressors." Frank ordered. "Seems our anonymous hint was true. He is a Death Eater. Let's see what we can find and if his wife and father are also with Voldemort."

Frank was one of the few aurors that used the name and scoffed at the fear it normally caused. It was one reason why Hadrian was more than happy to be on his team.

Narcissa did have the mark as did Abraxas Malfoy. They were cuffed after being stunned too and brought to the Ministry holding cells. Another auror took the crying baby of Lucius and Narcissa with him and after checking the records Andromeda Tonks was contacted as the boy's aunt. She agreed to take him in after she had proven that she wasn't part of the Death Eaters.

Hadrian 'found' the secret room under the living room floor and was praised by Frank. Some of the things in there were revolting. While searching Hadrian found the diary. He bagged it with other things, though the diary went into a sack of acromantula silk that Hadrian managed to hide under his robes without anybody noticing. No wonder in the dark of the room and the swiftness with which Hadrian moved. He would destroy it later in a secure location.

* * *

Barty Crouch was really happy with the success of the raid. He could present three newly caught Death Eaters to the press. It showed that the new processes that had been implemented since James Potter had found out about the Dark Mark on the Death Eaters' arms from his cousin Hadrian worked. And speaking of Hadrian Potter, the young man was growing into a very fine auror. He quickly learned the things he needed for the job and he was really powerful. Quick on his feet and with a good mind to back that power up. No wonder that Alastor Moody had personally taken to train him. The DMLE could only hope that they had enough time to train him fully. He would become invaluable in fighting the Death Eaters.

* * *

Hadrian was happy that Voldemort had lost one of his main financers. The Malfoy fortune was frozen until Draco came of age in a bit over sixteen years. Lucius, Narcissa and Abraxas were convicted of belonging to a terrorist organisation, murder, use of the unforgivable curses and many more crimes in the name of Voldemort.

Perhaps, just perhaps Hadrian would find out how it was to have a real family. Only two more horcruxes remained. The ring and the cup.

* * *

It was nearly too easy. Bellatrix Lestrange appeared at the Ministry to demand custody over her nephew Draco Malfoy. She had documents signed by her sister from the day Draco was born that in case anything happened to her her sister Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus were to get custody of Draco. The guard nodded seeing the paper and told her to go to the DMLE as the aurors had been the ones to give the baby to Andromeda Tonks as Narcissa Malfoy's sister. If the document was legal they would have to confirm it for Bellatrix to get custody.

Bellatrix didn't seem to know about the new security measures though. It was mandatory that everybody inside the Ministry was checked for the Dark Mark. While Minister Bagnold had tried to protest that action, Barty Crouch as chief of the inland defence had called out martial law, which gave him and the aurors the right to put up the security measures they thought necessary. There was nothing the Minister could do. It led to Bellatrix being the next one going to the holding cells and soon after getting a one-way-ticket to Azkaban.

* * *

Hadrian sat in Crouch's office to discuss a paper with suggestions to make the fight against the Death Eaters more efficient. Crouch was obviously very impressed.

"You are suggesting many ways that would certainly make things easier for us, but I would like to hear your reasons with your own words and not the technicalities you wrote in your report, Hadrian." Crouch said.

"Well, Mr Crouch, I have read all the reports about the fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters I could find. We have now been at war for nearly eleven years and we didn't really have success with hitting them hard enough for them to get weary of us. We may arrest some lower links, but thanks to Voldemort organising his army in small cells that operated independently we never managed to catch the big fishes. On top they attack masked which makes identifying anybody futile. If we simply question them, they will lie, fearing retaliation from Voldemort or the other Death Eaters or because they think they won't stay in prison for long.

"That's why I suggested using veritaserum. First, we take away their ability to lie and second we get all the information we can use against them. If we try long enough we might find somebody who is higher up in their ranks and knows more about plans and the members. The cells wouldn't work as well as they do if Voldemort was the only one commanding them. He must have some kinds of generals that we don't know. Probably powerful witches and wizards absolutely loyal to his cause. But we won't be able to find them if we don't search. That's why I think that we should let our auror patrols do random checks for the dark mark in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. We won't be able to keep our knowledge of the dark mark a secret for much longer anyway, so we can as well use it offensively. The public will be on their guard and the Death Eaters lose mobility if they fear being asked to show their arms." Hadrian explained.

Crouch nodded. That was sound reasoning.

"We also need to make sure that we are absolutely following our laws. If we start arresting people randomly the people will be upset and it could lead to them going over to Voldemort because he promised them more personal freedom. We can't be seen as oppressors. But if we give everybody we catch a fair trial, nobody will be able to complain. The accusation of being a Death Eater comes with murder, torture and other crimes which justify having all of them testify under veritaserum before he Wizengamot. Feeble excuses like imperius curse would shatter for those that lie. True victims will be cleared and compensated." Hadrian said.

"I understand. Those measures would indeed be able to help us a lot. I will inform the head auror and the master aurors that they can start using them from next week on. As you have given us a lot of good suggestions, would you be interested to be the one interrogating Bellatrix Lestrange? See it as a test of how useful your plans can be." Crouch said.

Hadrian understood that the DMLE head was testing him and nodded. It couldn't have gone better.

* * *

In the holding cells block Bellatrix was chained to a chair in one of the interrogation rooms. She looked furious that she had been discovered as a Death Eater. The Dark Lord would punish those stupid aurors soon enough. She wouldn't be a prisoner for long. And all of that because the aurors had given Narcissa's son to Andromeda the bloodtraitor. The Dark Lord had ordered her to get the boy as her ward to get back control over the Malfoy gold. She saw the door opening and a young man in auror robes entering with a small vial in is hand.

"Are they now sending babies to do auror work?" Bellatrix mocked. "You can't be older than eighteen."

"Oh, I am, but that doesn't say anything about my skill, Mrs Lestrange." Hadrian replied calmly. "You see, we will have a little talk about your actions as a Death Eater and your companions."

"I won't tell you anything, the Dark Lord will rescue me soon." Bellatrix spat.

"I know that you won't talk willingly, Mrs Lestrange." Hadrian said calmly.

"As if you could make me talk." She scoffed, but her eyes widened seeing him holding up the vial with the clear substance. "No, that's illegal."

"Not anymore. You see under martial law Mr Crouch is able to pass all measures he thinks necessary to restore order. And the main problem is that you and your little Death Eater friends are really hard to sniff out. Therefore when we find one of you we will make sure to get all information we want." Hadrian declared cheerfully unnerving Bellatrix a lot.

But her feeble struggling in the chair was futile as Hadrian forced her mouth open and dropped three clear drops of the potion into her mouth.

"Interrogation of Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange on 25th March 1981. Interrogator Hadrian Potter." Hadrian dictated and a quill wrote everything he said down. "Means of interrogation three drops of veritaserum given orally. The suspect has been found with the Dark Mark on her left forearm, which activates article three of the martial law concerning terrorist activities. What is your name?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange." She answered dully.

"Have you become a Death Eater willingly?"

"Yes, you can only take the mark of the Dark Lord willingly."

That was really valuable information as it condemned everybody having it.

"Describe the actions you had to take to earn the mark."

"I was part of a group that was tasked to prove their loyalty to the Dark Lord. We caught a family of mudbloods and tortured them in front of the Dark Lord with the cruciatus curse. Once he was satisfied Rastaban and I killed the older ones while Igor raped the girl until she was bloody. He killed her afterwards."

Hadrian was disgusted with that information. He would so make sure that no Death Eater escaped this time.

"Name all Death Eaters that you know of."

And Bellatrix started listing names, some they knew already, some they didn't. Hadrian was shocked at how long the list was. She named twenty one of them. Three cells of five she had been responsible for and five inner circle members, two of them being Lucius and Narcissa, the others Rodolphus, Rastaban and Snape.

"Have any of the Death Eaters been entrusted with things that were important for Voldemort's plans or him personally?" Hadrian asked knowing that this would offer him the chance to get into the Lestrange vault if everything worked out well.

"Yes, I got a golden cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff from the Dark Lord. I was told to make sure it was safe and couldn't be stolen. Lucius too got something, though I don't know what it was." She answered.

Hadrian then asked about other plans she knew about, though she told them that the Death Eaters weren't told much, only when a new raid was planned they were informed shortly in advance to mobilize their cells.

"Are there any other things we should know before you are sent to Azkaban?" Hadrian asked.

"My unborn child will die if you sent me there now." She answered shocking Hadrian.

He hadn't known that Bellatrix had been pregnant at this point in time.

"How far along are you?" He asked.

"Three months. I was told to stay away from raids after the next one to not endanger my unborn child." She replied.

That had to be the reason. On that raid she must have been hit by a curse that made her lose the child. She would be kept in an isolated cell, but well-cared for until the baby was born. After that she would be sent to Azkaban for life while her child would be given to a foster family.

Outside the room Hadrian was complimented by the other aurors who had watched the interrogation through the enchanted mirror. Barty Crouch was especially pleased and issued arrest warrants for all those that Bellatrix had named.

* * *

Hadrian soon was part of another team that was sent to confiscate the Lestrange vault. The goblins had tried to protest, but a new law that was confirm with the treaties allowed the DMLE to confiscate the possessions of people belonging to terrorist organisations for investigation. Everything that wasn't cursed or generally dark had to be given back to the vault owners or their heirs. So the team got everything that was identified as dark or cursed from the vault. Hadrian managed to drop a bit of basilisk venom on the cup in a corner as it was really loud with three aurors casting detection spells and or putting cursed items into bags. After the shrieking was over and the cup blackened it went into the bag for the DMLE. The important part was done. Now only one horcrux remained.

* * *

It was April now and Hadrian was satisfied with his success rate so far. The Malfoys, the Lestranges, McNair, Dolohov and Rosier were either dead or in Azkaban with the exception of Bellatrix who was held in a high security facility under fidelius until her child was born. She was still convinced that Voldemort would come and rescue her and nobody bothered correcting her. She was kept in a single room with enclosed bathroom. She got food three times a day and a bowl of fruit was in her room for her to eat at her leisure. Nobody wanted to be responsible for the death of an unborn child, even if the parents were Death Eaters.

From the reactions Voldemort wasn't happy at all. He had done three raids last month in person. Though the Order, which Hadrian had now joined just to get more information on the things going on, had managed to stop them before they got too much out of hand. And only one horcrux remained. Hadrian had inspected the place, though the wards were beyond his capabilities. While he could disable the parseltongue barrier, the rest was based on runes and he had never taken that class. So this time Dumbledore would do the deed for him. And if he didn't survive, bad luck. Hadrian wouldn't actively kill. He tried to hold it like Moody. Bring them in alive. But nobody said anything about saving people from dying whom he thought deserved it. His, how Hermione had dubbed it, saving-people-thing had been weakened considerably now that he had really experienced war.

It may only be a small difference, but in his eyes it was important. Many people deserved death, but he didn't want to be the one to kill them. If they got in situations where they would die without help, well, he didn't need to help them and nobody would mourn them.

He also had caught Regulus Black in early January. He had declared that it had been a huge coincidence as he had just graduated from the auror academy when he had found Sirius' younger brother. Hadrian had convinced Moody that Regulus might have had important information. It led to Moody putting him under veritaserum and getting the full truth. Regulus had been deeply disturbed by the things Voldemort demanded of his Death Eaters and what he himself did to his victims. As he hadn't killed anybody yet, his initiation had consisted of bringing Voldemort something of value and as Walburga and Orion Black had been all for Regulus joining the Death Eaters they had allowed him to present Voldemort with a rare book that had been in the Black library for centuries. As a raid had come up and Voldemort needed more manpower that had been all for Regulus' test and he had got the mark.

He didn't know of any others that had got away that lightly though. Probably because Voldemort wanted the power of the Blacks and their fortune to back his cause. As Regulus didn't kill anybody yet, Crouch let him go with six months in Azkaban for a good amount of information against Voldemort. So now the DMLE knew about Voldemort's horcruxes. Though they hadn't found any, even after searching the things that had been confiscated during the Malfoy and Lestrange raids. Though a blackened cup in the Lestrange things made them curious as Bellatrix had said that Voldemort had entrusted her with Hufflepuff's cup.

Well, it was no wonder. Only Hadrian and Voldemort knew where all the horcruxes were hidden. And now the hunt for little Harry and Neville had really started. Voldemort had determined them as potential threats to him. James and Lily had already moved once. Though now it seemed that they would soon have to move again. There was a spy in the Order. Hadrian knew it was Pettigrew, but how to prove it?

* * *

**Okay, cut for now, tomorrow you will find out more.**


	4. A New Hero

**And here is chapter four. Thanks for all your support for this story. Some of you indeed guessed right on some plans I have for the development here, but you will have to read what I mean.**

* * *

**A New Hero**

Hadrian really wondered why Dumbledore took so long to follow the clue Fabian Prewett had overheard. He should be eager to get rid of Voldemort, but the Order was horribly inefficient. If he only didn't need Dumbledore to get through the protections on the ring. The Order had got the information at the end of April, now it was early July. Fabian and Gideon had confirmed that the information was true and that the shack in Little Hangleton was heavily warded. When they had returned home they only barely had escaped a Death Eater ambush. Fabian had spent two weeks in St. Mungo's to get healed. Gideon had a nasty lasting scar on his left arm.

Hadrian suspected that this had been the ambush in which they had originally died taking a bunch of Death Eaters with them into death. Moody had mentioned that when he had shown him the photo of the original Order of the Phoenix. A group he now belonged to as well. Strange how things had played out. The members of the Order were targets for the Death Eaters.

Hadrian himself had been the target of two assassination attempts already. One when he was on patrol with James and once after work. Both times the Death Eaters had regretted trying to take on Hadrian Potter. He was a force of nature by now, as far as rumours went. Moody had told him that many were already betting on how many Death Eaters he would bring in each week. Hadrian while proud of that achievement knew that it wouldn't be long before Voldemort himself would try to kill him. He did that with his most powerful adversaries. So far he hadn't appeared in person.

Well, thanks to Hadrian Fenrir Greyback didn't pose a threat anymore. The werewolf didn't take well to a silver needle barrage that Hadrian had shot at him in their fight. Nobody had been able to help him. Not that anybody was sad to know the monster dead. The Minister personally awarded him for killing the most notorious werewolf in Europe. The Marauders had thrown a huge party for Hadrian. Especially Remus was extremely happy that the werewolf that had turned him and many other helpless children was now dead.

* * *

Finally at the end of July Dumbledore went to the Gaunt shack. Like the first time he fell to the lure of the ring. He put it onto his hand, though this time before destroying the horcrux, probably because he didn't know that it was one and only recognized the Stone of Resurrection. The hint had only included that the shack was heavily warded for some reason and that it could have something to do with Voldemort. Hadrian waited until Dumbledore either reigned in the curse or died. He wouldn't interfere.

Dumbledore managed to apparate back to Hogwarts, but barely. Madam Pomfrey did her best to save him, but she was no expert on dark magic like Snape had been. So without Snape stopping and trapping the curse in the hand, Albus Dumbledore died on 31st July 1981 at Hogwarts. The aurors that investigated his death recognized the ring as a horcrux. The blackened cup from the Lestrange vault had been identified as such by the Unspeakables and now the auror office had one more confirmation on the information Regulus Black had given them. Therefore they had all learned how to identify them. One controlled area with very little things that could burn and a bit of fiendfire from Moody's wand were the end of the last horcrux. Nobody noticed though that Hadrian collected the stone after the ring itself had melted. There was no way he would let a Deathly Hallow lie around. He wasn't really surprised when both versions of the stone fused together. After all, there should only be one version of them at any time.

* * *

Hadrian like all Order members attended the funeral at Hogwarts. It was as pompous as the first one. Though Hadrian managed to get the wand exchange for a deceivingly authentic looking copy. With Dumbledore's death Moody took over as leader of the Order. Now things were done a lot more efficiently. Peter was found out as the spy and sent to Azkaban. James, Sirius and Remus were massively hurt, but hearing what crimes Peter had committed already as a Death Eater made them think that they hadn't known Peter as well as they thought they did. Hadrian was glad. Everything now looked as if he could keep his family. The horcruxes were gone and as long as Voldemort didn't make the last one already he was mortal now. The best part was, as nobody outside the DMLE knew about the horcruxes, Voldemort had no clue that the aurors were looking for them. He thought he still had his five anchors. And from what he could have managed to hear form any spies that weren't marked inside the Ministry, the items that had been confiscated in the raids of Malfoy Manor and the Lestrange estate were safely stored in a high security area at the Ministry.

So as long as nobody said anything about a destruction of dark artefacts he would assume that his horcruxes were still save and ironically protected by the Ministry itself. He wouldn't let that go for long, that much was sure, but as long as he didn't take over the Ministry he wouldn't be able to get them back.

* * *

Hadrian was working long today. His success in capturing Death Eaters had got him quickly promoted to full auror, only staying as a junior auror for three months after Moody had finished his 'basic' training of four months. Normally you had junior status for at least a year. Hadrian was the youngest full auror ever. After Dumbledore's death Voldemort was wracking havoc. He obviously thought that with Dumbledore the resistance had died. Wrong. Others had stepped up; Hadrian and the remaining marauders in the lead. The Ministry was closed to Voldemort. All his spies had been caught by now as far as Hadrian was aware. Crouch was the master of security. For the first time in years there was hope to push the dark forces back.

At nine in the evening Hadrian was finally done with the last paperwork. He now only wanted to get home and get some sleep. Perhaps a bite to eat before that. It led to one final stop at a 24 hours grocery store to buy something to fill his mostly empty fridge. While his house elf could get most things they needed he didn't want to buy too much in magical shops to not give any information about what he regularly bought to his enemies. Paranoid, perhaps true, but Peter's interrogation had revealed how many people had been poisoned by smuggling the poison into their weekly groceries that their house elves collected. So buying his things in the muggle world would be much safer, even if a little inconvenient.

Tomorrow he was invited to Lily and James for dinner. His younger self was quite happy to zoom around on the toy-broom that Sirius had bought for him as a birthday present. Lily's cat wasn't as enthusiastic about it though with the new situation from what he had heard. James description at work had been very entertaining for all aurors. James had had to chase his son around the house for over an hour before Harry had tired out. And it was a regular occurrence. Though from the gleam in his eyes whenever he spoke about it he couldn't be prouder of his 'future Quidditch player'.

When Hadrian apparated home he immediately knew that something was wrong. The Dark Mark hang over his house in the sky. What did Voldemort intend to achieve with that? Hadrian lived alone except his house elf Gipsy. And Voldemort would never regard a house elf worthy of a Dark Mark.

"Gipsy." He called out and the elf appeared at his side.

"Yes, master?" Gipsy asked.

"Why is there a Dark Mark over the house?" Hadrian asked.

"The Dark Pest as you call him, master, left it as a message. I heard him say next time it would be for your death, Master Hadrian." The elf answered.

Hadrian had been happy to find out that thanks to the isolation of the Vaiseys Gipsy had been taught to speak proper English. She was also much more reserved than other elves he had seen. She saw herself as a valued servant of her family and Hadrian completely supported that opinion. She was also a great help with his work as she sorted a lot of the paperwork for him which saved him a few hours each day which he could use to train.

"If he believes that he can frighten me he is dead wrong." Hadrian said. "Was anything destroyed or tempered with?"

"No, Master Hadrian. The Dark Pest was not happy that he wasted a long time to break the wards, not that he managed to get inside the house, he only brought the outer layer down, which by now should be back to half its strength. He realised that you weren't home and decided to take his minions and simply leave the mark as a message." Gypsy stated.

"Well, then working overtime today had a good side. I wasn't sure how strong the wards were with the additions I made. That they held up is good to know. How many Death Eaters did he have with him?" Hadrian asked.

"Seven as far as I could see." Gipsy answered.

"Hm, he will probably come back with more of them and I will need to prepare for that." Hadrian said.

'Seems as if Voldemort is getting annoyed with me.' He thought.

The next day Hadrian put his house under the fidelius charm with himself as the secret keeper. He wouldn't risk anything even if he wouldn't hide away over the day. He liked his first real home and he didn't want it destroyed by Voldemort if he brought enough man-power to overpower the wards.

* * *

Over the next weeks Hadrian made a surprising observation. He had become Voldemort's new top target. He didn't really understand why, Voldemort should have still been concerned about the prophecy, which was why James and Lily had moved again and Frank had secured his home with the best wards he could find anywhere. Well, by the start of September that had cost Voldemort fifteen Death Eaters. They hadn't been especially strong or smart; they had thought he would fall to high numbers. He taught them better and delivered them tied up with broken legs, broken ribs, massive burns, deep cuts, concussions or severe blunt trauma to the auror office. Hey, they were still alive, but nobody who signed up for Voldemort and followed his sick orders deserved mercy.

Hadrian knew that the inner and outer circle held perhaps 200 to 250 Death Eaters and they had got some inner circle members like Malfoy and the Lestranges early on. Bellatrix would also soon give birth to her child. The healers attested that the baby was healthy and she would be allowed to keep it for about a month before she would be sent to Azkaban. By now her belief that she would be rescued by the Dark Lord had faltered some and she realized that she wouldn't be able to see her baby grow up. It had already been cleared with the Tonks that they would take in that baby as well. Draco Malfoy had grown well under their loving care and was as happy as any baby boy could be. He even sometimes got to play with Harry and Neville when their parents went out on Order business. Andromeda and Ted were very willing babysitters.

Hadrian just wondered why he was targeted over people like Crouch. It would make more sense to take out the head of the DMLE than one young auror.

* * *

In a raid on Diagon Alley in the middle of September Hadrian had his first real confrontation with Voldemort.

"So we finally meet, Hadrian Potter." Voldemort said.

"Seems like it, Voldemort. Took you long enough to come and face me personally with the strong interest you showed in getting me killed for months." Hadrian replied standing firm.

"Ah, I overestimated my Death Eaters a bit and unfortunately underestimated you despite the rumours I heard about your capabilities. A mistake I intend to correct." Voldemort countered silkily. "You are the cause of too many disturbed plans, Hadrian."

"Nice to hear I managed to make your plans fail." Hadrian said grinning. "I won't stop doing so until you are gone."

Voldemort's face showed anger and then he started duelling Hadrian. Hadrian by now had had his fair share of experience in duelling and was a match for Voldemort. After all, Voldemort kept mostly to destructive spells. While there were many of them, it was possible to defend against them if you kept moving and didn't forget to attack right back. Though when the aurors arrived in full force with back-up Voldemort decided his duel with Hadrian would have to be continued another time. He disapparated and the remaining Death Eaters that could followed their master's example.

The fight had been taxing on Hadrian, but he had stood his ground against Voldemort in a real duel while getting minimal injuries. He had also used the phoenix feather wand. So that meant that with the Elder Wand he would probably be able to win.

* * *

It was a good day for the auror office. They arrested nine Death Eaters, among them Crabbe, Nott and Karkaroff from the inner circle. They had been on the run from the Ministry for a while. The information they had got from Malfoy and Bellatrix had condemned them already, but so far they had got away, probably hiding in one of the hideouts that Voldemort had all over the country or behind strong wards of their manors. With all the raids going on the Ministry had some problems taking down the entire manor wards efficiently.

James and Frank had been most successful with getting two Death Eaters each to arrest them. Though Hadrian got the lion's share of praise for stalemating Voldemort.

* * *

The next attacks from Voldemort were again targeting Harry and Neville. Hadrian advised Lily and James as well as Alice and Frank to put their houses under fidelius charm to be safe.

"We don't know how he manages to keep finding you all the time, but we do know that he is coming after you repeatedly. And with one year old toddlers in the house you can't properly fight. So you should at least make sure that you are safe at your homes. I did the same. While my wards weren't breached this is a lot less stress." Hadrian said.

"That might be a good idea." Lily agreed. "I'm sick of constantly moving. If we can keep Harry safe that way then I'm all for it."

The other three parents simply nodded.

"We should also check if anywhere on your or your children's things are tracking charms. Constant Vigilance!" Moody stated.

The suggestion was also followed. It was found that on a plush stag of Harry and a sock of Neville there were indeed tracking charms. James and Frank immediately undid them. The next day the fidelius charms were put in place and this time Hadrian was sure they wouldn't break. James and Frank themselves were the secret keepers. Why this hadn't been done the first time around Hadrian didn't know. After all, the Weasleys had done it for the Burrow and Shell Cottage after Hadrian's group had been found in the tent because Hadrian had stupidly used the taboo. So there was no reason that the secret keeper needed to be somebody that didn't live under the charm.

It was probably another of Dumbledore's ideas to keep in contact. Moody was a much better leader of the Order in Hadrian's opinion.

* * *

Voldemort's next raid, as expected, was taking place in Hogsmeade while the students were allowed to visit the village. Really, he was getting so predictable. All students had been equipped with emergency portkeys back to Hogwarts which headmistress McGonagall had created with permission of Mr Crouch. It was the perfect setup to get Voldemort into the open. Once all the students were gone, the aurors and the Order members came upon the surprised Death Eaters. Hadrian again duelled Voldemort, this time with some support from Sirius. Together they managed to bring Voldemort onto the defence. Then it happened. Hadrian had waited for it to happen already. Hadrian shot a stunning spell at the same time that Voldemort shot a killing curse.

The spells met and again a connection between the twin cores formed. Like in Hadrian's fourth year in that graveyard a golden dome formed around them and phoenix song sounded around them. Hadrian contrary to Voldemort knew what was happening. He concentrated to push the beads into Voldemort's wand. It was easier than the first time as his mental focus was much better than it had been when he was fourteen. Finally one of the beads connected with Voldemort's wand and forced it to perform its last spells in reverse order.

Harry held the connection. He knew that Voldemort didn't understand why this was happening. He pulled out the Elder Wand with his free left hand.

"I hope I never see you again, Tom Riddle." Hadrian said, making Voldemort's eyes grow wide. "Reducto."

Hadrian fired, hitting Voldemort's stomach and shooting a big hole through it.

'Please don't let him have made that last horcrux yet.' Harry begged in his mind.

Seemingly he hadn't. Voldemort's body hit the ground.

"I won't die here, Hadrian. I am immortal." Voldemort brought out rasping, his lungs filling with blood.

All those around watched in awe. The most feared dark lord in recent history was beaten. Beaten by a young auror of just nineteen years. Hadrian noticed the irony that again it was on Halloween.

"No, you aren't immortal, we know of your horcruxes." Hadrian said and Voldemort's eyes widened again.

"You will never find them all, Hadrian. I went farther than any other to gain immortality." Voldemort spat.

"You didn't get to split your soul into seven pieces yet." Hadrian stated, stopping Voldemort's words out cold and from his face he could see the attempted denial at his correct suspicion. "I suspect you had decided that my death was meant to be the one to complete your last horcrux. Since I got your fifteen Death Eaters you always faced me yourself and we found out from captured Death Eaters that you had given orders to capture me alive."

"Smart boy. You should have been on my side." Voldemort rasped knowing that he had lost for now. He didn't believe that Hadrian had really found all horcruxes. After all, only he had known their hiding places.

"Not after what all your insanity cost me. No, your ideals won't spread. I will prevent it." Hadrian stated.

"The Ministry is weak. Crouch will fall soon enough without a war supporting his hardliner methods." Voldemort predicted. "And my followers will rise again and one will bring me back."

"There is no charm to bring back the dead, Tom. And all five of your horcruxes are destroyed. The diary from Malfoy Manor, Hufflepuff's cup from the Lestrange vault, the Peverell ring from the Gaunt shack that killed Dumbledore, Slytherin's locket in the cave with the inferi and Ravenclaw's lost diadem at Hogwarts. They are gone. You will die. And it's too late for remorse." Hadrian listed.

Finally Voldemort looked beaten.

"But the prophecy, you shouldn't," he brought out heavily.

"A prophecy only comes true if you believe in it. Each decision forms another path into our future. And I decided I wouldn't let you destroy the world with your insanity."

Voldemort then did his last breath. Hadrian was glad. No wraith this time. He was gone for good. He was free of his destiny. The worst Death Eaters were in prison and he would get the ones that were here. On top he had bought those businesses that gave the few remaining ones most of their money in his time. And if he could influence the Ministry to do things right this time, the future would be very different.

The crowd cheered. Finally the man that had held the wizarding world in a choking grip for eleven years was dead. Hadrian didn't let himself get distracted. He shot stunners at all the Death Eaters that were too shocked to believe that their master had fallen. Soon the other Order members and aurors followed his example. He wouldn't repeat the mistake they had made after the battle of Hogwarts. The Death Eaters should rot in Azkaban for their sins. It didn't take long before all Death Eaters were stunned or otherwise taken out. This time they would end it for good.

* * *

Hadrian Potter was celebrated as a hero. All over Britain and Europe people were celebrating his victory over Voldemort. Hadrian kept to making sure that no Death Eater got away unpunished. He convinced Crouch to put each and every one on trial publically. None of them could be given the chance to plead on innocence for being under the imperius curse. While he had already told Crouch this before, it was better to make sure that in the euphoria of the victory people didn't get carried away like last time. Veritaserum was brewed in masses to use in every trial. It saved true imperius victims from going to prison and made sure others went there.

Crouch was all for it. He wanted to get the mess that the war had caused cleared up properly. The public praised his decisive actions against the Death Eaters and that he still didn't sacrifice innocents. That had been one thing Harry had feared would happen again. But as he was the defeater of Voldemort, he was heard by the higher ups. That Voldemort's supporters didn't lead the Ministry this time around helped massively. Crouch's popularity got a blow though when his son was found out to be a Death Eater. It had been a big coincidence as the aurors caught him with some suspected Death Eaters.

They had thought his questioning would only be routine and then he would be let go with a warning that he should choose his companions better next time. Though his trial showed him to be a fanatically loyal Death Eater. Like in Hadrian's past people started to talk how a boy from a good family like him could become a Death Eater. But it didn't have other consequences so far. The trials went on and Crouch's standing within the Ministry was still high. After all, Hadrian had eliminated those that had brought Crouch's fall about beforehand. Some hidden Death Eaters, some supporters that Hadrian had discriminated and the like.

Hadrian had especially enjoyed preventing Umbridge's rise to higher and more dangerous positions. Crouch had one important job: Preventing Fudge from ever becoming Minister. While Crouch had many flaws, Hadrian could handle him. Crouch owed a lot of his success in pressing the dark forces back to Hadrian's ideas and information. And Hadrian intended to capitalise from that. Crouch's priorities were right. He wanted to get rid of all the dark supporters. Fudge only wanted influence and money of the job.

* * *

**Alright, Voldy is dead! I didn't think dragging it out for long would be good. And I am not that good at writing fighting scenes, so you have to use your imagination how that went. :) Till tomorrow.**


	5. Finding Love

**And here is the answer about Harry's love life. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Finding Love**

It took the people of Great Britain three years to repair most of the damage done to their world. And not only the material damage. Followers of Voldemort were hunted down and brought to justice. The politics that had enabled Voldemort's rise to power were examined and changed. It took a lot of political work, convincing of people and pitiless revelations just what those politics had caused. All the dirt that had been hidden away was brought to light, sponsored by an upcoming magical company: MoD Enterprises. That company was soon known to every witch and wizard in Great Britain and many muggles as well. It operated in both worlds even if nobody really understood how that worked.

But as the owner was notoriously secretive and refused to give any interviews, people started speculating about who it could be. Some even said it was Dumbledore who had faked his death. That idea was shot down soon though and the guessing continued. The only one knowing was the director of MoD Enterprises and he was under magical oath to not reveal anything. Not that the people found out who the director was for a long time too.

Hadrian was an honorary uncle to both little Harry and Neville. Both the Potters and the Longbottoms had another child now. James and Lily a girl called Holly and Frank and Alice a boy called Reese. They had been born in November 1983 for Holly and January 1984 for Reese. Sirius was still single though he had had some girlfriends, sometimes much to Lily's chagrin. His behaviour wasn't a good example for her son she thought. Thankfully Harry was too young to understand what his uncle did and why he shouldn't do it. He just listened to his mother.

Remus had taken up the offer of headmistress McGonagall to take the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Just last year Damocles Belby had developed the Wolfsbane potion for MoD Enterprises. Originally that potion had been developed in 1992, but with ideal research facilities and monetary support, which Belby had lacked last time around and had had to do with little professional equipment on top of his family's scorn, he had managed to do it much faster. MoD Enterprises had announced that all werewolves that were willing to register and take the potion regularly to avoid them becoming ravaging beasts during the full moon would get a seventy-five per cent discount for three years. On top of that MoD Enterprises would offer them jobs according to their abilities and school them for jobs they needed workers for.

Unnecessary to say that the werewolf population in Great Britain completely stagnated from that point on and many finally had a chance to integrate into society. MoD had not only produced the potion in high amounts, it also led an offensive to educate people on the true nature of werewolves and why they weren't different to any other person who had a disease. It made things a lot easier for werewolves, even if the changes in mentality would take a long time to fully sink in. It was a start and more than ever before.

Hadrian's business vault was also filled nicely now. His personal vault held his salaries from his job as an auror and the profit that selling the basilisk had given him. It had been even more than he had estimated. He didn't tell anybody of his fortune. Otherwise he would have a lot more women wanting to marry him than he already had. At least this time around nobody even had the stupid idea of introducing a marriage law. He would have fought tooth and nail against it and he would have won.

People were behind him and those that had started the law last time were all dead or imprisoned. Speaking of prisoners, the children of the Death Eaters were growing up in carefully chosen foster families. Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange's daughter Elleanora lived with Andromeda and Ted Tonks. Both she and Draco didn't know that Andromeda and Ted weren't their parents. And Nymphadora loved having little siblings.

Many of the families that had been problems in Hadrian's time were reduced to one or two children now. Sometimes one parent hadn't been part of the Death Eaters, but even then the families were regularly visited by members of the Department of Child Welfare. It was to make sure that the pureblood extremes weren't taught to the next generation. Most parents were smart enough to follow the new Ministry policies, some needed constant reminders. Many complained in the beginning, but the overwhelming majority of people were all for preventing that a dark wizard like Voldemort could ever rise again.

Examples for some of Hadrian's old classmates growing up in different families were Theodore Nott who was raised by the Bones, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle who had been taken in by the Crouchs and Pansy Parkinson and Blaize Zabini who were raised by aunts on their mother's sides of the families. Hadrian really hoped that with a better environment to grow up in they wouldn't follow the dark path like they had done in his time.

* * *

In 1986 Hadrian was sent on an annual meeting for aurors representing their nations. Hadrian had got the spot this year as Frank had declared he didn't want to go with Alice being eight months pregnant again and James had just become father again so he also refused to go. Hadrian had offered to do it, even if he hated the worshipping he always got on meetings like that. You simply couldn't kill a dark lord without becoming a world famous wizard. His chocolate frog card was more common than that of Dumbledore now. And still children were squealing when they got one.

During one of the lunch breaks he looked for a lonely spot. He had already enough of all the questions and awed looks from his colleagues. He knew he was a powerful wizard, but there were other powerful wizards around the world. Next year he would so make somebody else go. It couldn't fall to him, James or Frank all the time. When he hid from a group of female aurors who were trying to find him, probably to impress him and gain his interest, he saw that he wasn't the only one trying to hide from a mass of admirers. He saw a woman around his age with long reddish-brown hair which she wore in a ponytail trying to ditch a group of men.

He had to admit that she was beautiful. She had a heart-shaped face, pale skin with a few freckles around the nose and sapphire blue eyes. She was moving gracefully and had a very curvy figure. He could see that she was a skilled fighter from how she moved. No movement was wasted and she kept a close eye on her surroundings. That was probably the only way she could stay ahead of her admirers too.

He saw that his groupies were coming too close and he moved to another position. Really, this was getting ridiculous. Couldn't they see that he wasn't interested? And they called themselves aurors.

* * *

The third day they were put into pairs to demonstrate fighting techniques. Hadrian found himself paired with Rhapsody Tanner, the beautiful woman who had similar problem as him keeping her admirers in check.

"Hi, I'm Hadrian." He introduced himself.

"Rhapsody, but call me Sody. I think everybody does." She said.

"Call me Harry then. That's what my friends call me, well if my cousin's son isn't around, then it gets a bit confusing because his name is Harry too." Hadrian said.

"Gladly. So tell me, are you by any chance up to showing those idiots what a true auror can do? I heard about you, Harry, and if even half of the stories are true, I'm impressed." She said.

"I have no idea what stories are going around, but I will happily blast them off their feet. I am really getting annoyed with their attitudes. I mean, I get that I am famous for killing Voldemort, but couldn't they stop staring after a day and keep repeating the same stupid questions?" Hadrian complained.

"Some would think you would relish the attention." She mentioned.

"They don't know me. I rather play with my cousin's and friends' children than going to official functions, even if my boss always tries to get me there to show me around. If things get too much for me I go flying to clear my head. Those witches that think I would fall for their advances really need to get a mental evaluation." He scoffed.

"So you're not the least bit attracted to one of them?" Rhapsody asked teasingly.

"Physically maybe, there are some good-looking ones among them, but as soon as they behave like they do I feel repulsed. I saw that you had similar problems with some men that don't know when to quit." He mentioned.

"Yeah, I am so close to hexing their bits off." She demonstrated with her fingers how close she was. There wasn't a lot of space between her thumb and pointing finger. "I hope I get to fight some of them during this exercise."

Hadrian laughed.

"Sadly it's not appropriate for a wizard to badly hex a witch out of annoyance, though I really would like to do so. Say, would you let me hex your suitors and you hex mine? That way we both can vent our frustrations." Hadrian suggested.

She grinned evilly.

"I like the way you think, Harry." She said.

* * *

The mock battles went fully in Hadrian and Rhapsody's favour. The two bonded over their unwanted suitors and took to hexing the other's regularly. Hadrian found that Rhapsody had a vicious sense of humour when she was pushed too far and they set up lots of embarrassing pranks for them. The meeting was scheduled for two weeks. They noticed that they were in nearly all workshops together. After a week, when both their admirers were starting to become too bothersome Rhapsody decided to put a stop to all that nonsense and kissed Hadrian in front of the whole group. She had originally planned it as a statement to get the others of their backs, but both were surprised how nice it felt and didn't stop for a while. Only the amused coughing of the moderator of the meeting brought them out of it. Of the other participants only the older ones that had no interest in either of them looked amused. Others looked pissed at losing their target to somebody else. Not that Rhapsody and Hadrian cared.

Hadrian took Rhapsody out on a date that evening and they talked about everything they liked and got really close. As the congress hall was in a city with many opportunities to go out at night they went through a lot of those places in that week, slipping into the muggle world more than once to be alone. The last evening there was a big party where all the ones that had been at the meeting had the opportunity to simply let go and party. The older ones kept to drinking and telling stories from their careers while the younger ones were dancing and some making out.

Hadrian and Rhapsody got pretty drunk that night and danced for hours, never accepting the offers to dance from one of the others. Thanks to Rhapsody not being able to walk to her room alone Harry ended sleeping in her room when she simply pulled him inside after he brought her there. Thanks to the alcohol their inhibitions were pretty low, not to mention that they were incredibly attracted to each other. That night Hadrian lost his virginity to Rhapsody and he couldn't have wanted a better woman to share this special event with. He had had to deal with a lot of mocking from Sirius for his problems getting close to a woman, but with how shallow most of the ones he had got to know a bit were, he had never felt the wish to sleep with any of them. It had been hard, but he didn't simply sleep with a woman he didn't love.

The next morning neither of them wanted to get out of bed. It was their last day at the meeting and after that they would have to return to their jobs. Hadrian to England and Rhapsody to America.

"I don't want to leave you, Harry." She said.

"Neither do I. I have never felt as much as I feel for you for another woman, Sody." Hadrian agreed. "I think I am falling in love with you."

"Me too. It's so unfair that we don't live in the same country." She complained.

"Perhaps we could ask for a transfer." He suggested.

"They would never let you go, Harry. But perhaps my boss would agree. She is pretty understanding and knows how much I hate how other men fawn over me. Sometimes I curse my blood." She said.

"What do you mean, Sody?" He asked making her realise what she had said, but there was no keeping secret anymore if she didn't want to lose him.

"One of my ancestors some generations back was a siren. I don't have the full allure, but some is still there. I also only have a nice singing voice, but not the magical abilities that a real siren has." She said.

"That explains a lot. I had guessed that perhaps some generations back you had a veela among your grandmothers. I friend of mine's grandmother was a veela. She had to deal with a lot of staring before she could fully control her allure and even then some weak minded fools drooled over her." Hadrian said.

Technically he didn't know Fleur yet, but that wasn't really important.

"You aren't disgusted that one of my ancestors was a magical creature?" She asked a bit relieved.

"Why would I? You are you, Sody. You are beautiful, have a wicked sense of humour and are one of the few people who can keep up with me when I get going. I massively enjoyed spending as much time as I could with you." Hadrian said honestly. "Did some others treat you badly over having a siren ancestor?"

"At school some did. Normally it's not that bad here in America. But some bastards were raised in families that detest magical creatures of any kind and are incredibly prejudiced against them. While the laws protect creatures better than they do in your country, there are a lot of witches and wizards lashing out against those of creature descent. I was called really bad things by them. So I tried to keep my heritage a secret." She admitted.

"There is no need to be ashamed. It's part of you. It's stupid to condemn people because of an ability they have or an ancestor. We are born like we are, nothing can change that. And it's nothing to be ashamed of." He assured her, then he kissed her lovingly.

She was really happy that he accepted her so unconditionally. She had wished for that for a long time.

* * *

Rhapsody's transfer was easier than they had thought. Her boss needed a long-time ambassador to England as the two countries were going to cooperate in fighting criminals. She had jumped at the chance to be transferred to England for at least fifteen years. That had been the factor that discouraged most others from the position. For her it was perfect. While she would miss some of her friends and her mentor who had shown her the ropes as an auror, she wanted to be with Hadrian. Her boss accepted her volunteering after having heard her reasons. She had feared that the aurors that were pursuing her had gone too far and that she wanted to run away first, but after hearing how she had met Hadrian Potter at the auror congress and was falling hard for him, she signed the transfer papers.

Hadrian was very surprised to see his girlfriend three weeks after having had to say goodbye. He happily spun her around after hearing her story. He couldn't care less who saw him. Rhapsody would stay for at least fifteen years. If things worked out between them forever. Those were great prospects.

Rhapsody was given a small apartment that the auror office owned until she could rent one of her own. Though it turned out to not be necessary. Rhapsody and Hadrian spent nearly all their free time together and he offered her to move in with him after only two weeks. She happily agreed. The one to be most outspokenly happy about that was Gipsy, Harry's house elf. She thought that her master really needed a nice woman in his life that made him happy. She didn't mention that she hoped to get little children to care for soon.

* * *

Getting a girlfriend seemed to be contagious, because even Sirius had kept his current girlfriend for over six months now. The Potters greeted both Rhapsody and Charlene Cooper, Sirius girlfriend, warmly in their middle. James and Lily knew how difficult it had been for Hadrian to find a woman he could love and who wasn't blinded by his fame. He had fled to them more than once when everything got too much for him. While Hadrian wasn't easily driven too far, he had needed to tell them about his problems to not be overwhelmed with everything. Lily and James had listened to him and tried to offer advice. Thankfully spending time with their children helped him a bit as he could forget his problems while playing with them.

They had absolutely no problems with that as Hadrian was great with children and Harry always looked forward to playing with his uncle. They really hoped that Hadrian and Rhapsody would be the ones for each other, but Lily said that she was sure they would marry sooner rather than later. She would be proven right.

* * *

1987 saw two weddings that were massively discussed in the press. Sirius black, notorious playboy, had been tamed by Charlene Cooper and rumours had it that a child was already on the way. The remaining members of house Black, meaning Sirius' brother Regulus, Andromeda Tonks and her family and Sirius' grandfather Arcturus, who was still head of the family, were happy about that match. Charlene was from an old wizarding family on her mother's side and her father was a halfblood. It was acceptable for Arcturus as Charlene was a powerful and smart witch. Those two aspects were much more important to him than her being a pureblood. As long as his grandson didn't marry a muggleborn he could live with it. That was the main reason Sirius had never formally disinherited.

Arcturus didn't think that running away to the Potters, a respected pureblood family, after Walburga and Orion had horribly abused Sirius, was a reason to disinherit the heir who was a powerful and smart wizard. While it shamed his parents, it was bearable for the family as long as he didn't go and marry a muggleborn.

The more headline causing wedding though was the one of Hadrian Potter with Rhapsody Tanner. The defeater of Voldemort, 25 years old most eligible bachelor, was marrying an American auror. The guest list for that wedding was contrary to what many people thought not overflowing with the who-is-who of the wizarding world. Those people would have liked to be invited, but Hadrian preferred a wedding among family and friends. The only politically important person invited was Bartemius Crouch with his wife as all the aurors were invited for the celebration and Hadrian didn't feel right excluding his former department head who had become Minister only a short while ago.

Constance Crouch had been healed from her disease thanks to Damocles Belby's newest creation in the field of Potions. MoD Enterprises was the biggest company in wizarding Britain, but still nobody knew the owner. Only the director's name had been found out, which in itself had come as a surprise for many, including some of said director's close friends and family. Regulus Black was the only person to ever have met the owner in person and even if he had had to swear an oath to keep his identity a secret, he would have done so anyway. The oath just made sure that he didn't accidentally slip. Thanks to Hadrian he had been saved from Voldemort's ranks with only a short time at Azkaban. He was eternally grateful for that and immortally loyal to his boss. After all, Hadrian had been able to get rid of the Dark Mark which Regulus had feared would shame him to the day he died. Sirius was incredibly happy that his brother had left the stupid believes of their parents behind. Regulus had married in 1983 and was now father of a little girl of one year.

Hadrian had told Rhapsody everything after she had moved in with him. He thought that their relationship would only have a chance if he was totally honest with her. She had made the first step by admitting her part-siren heritage, so he revealed his time-travelling and his reasons for them. He hadn't known how much that knowledge that he had kept from everybody had weighed on him, but after telling her everything he had felt so much lighter. It had taken some time for her to get used to the thought that her boyfriend was the Master of Death and probably the richest wizard in the world. But Hadrian was simply too nice to dwell on his history. What did it matter that he had originally been born in 1980 and that his younger self was just six years old? He was a great man, courageous, smart, powerful, gentle, loving and selfless. He shared her sense of duty and while he could have a temper, he always was so cute when he apologized. Not to mention that he was gorgeous. She jealously defended him against her competition.

* * *

In February 1988 both Hadrian and Sirius became fathers for the first time. Coincidentally James and Lily also had their fourth child in April. Poor Professor McGonagall when that year would start at Hogwarts. Hadrian and Rhapsody's twins were named Daniel after her father and Aaron because they both liked that name. Sirius' daughter was called Stella and managed to have her father wrapped around her tiny little finger within hours of being born and her mother Charlene had to interfere to prevent Sirius from spoiling her rotten.

While Hadrian had occasionally changed the diapers of his niece and nephews now he could be seen regularly doing it for his own children. While Rhapsody stayed at home completely for the first year after the twins were born in the evenings Hadrian made sure that his wife could relax a bit. She was tired enough having to get up to breast-feed the babies at night all the time. Rhapsody swore to her group of friends that she had the best husband ever.

To Hadrian's surprise Barty Crouch was one of the best Ministers of Magic Great Britain had ever had. While his son had died in Azkaban he and his wife were now doting foster parents to Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. None of them was as stupid or brutal as the two boys Hadrian remembered from his time. It was strange to see his generation grow up without the pureblood prejudices. Thanks to Minister Crouch doing a thorough house-cleaning at the Ministry even during the war and not stopping directly afterwards the positions at the Ministry were filled thanks to grades in OWL and NEWT exams, not connections and blood status. And one other change was very recognisable to Harry.

Snape had gone to Azkaban. He had never had Dumbledore's protection. As he never became Potions professor Slughorn had continued to teach until 1989 and then a former apprentice of Damocles Belby, who by now was probably the best paid potioneer in the world, and still developed incredible potions for MoD Enterprises, a man called John Saunders took over. The new applicants for the aurors were much better than before. As there wasn't as big a failure rate as before the auror office could now choose between capable applicants.

In May 1989 Hadrian's first daughter was born. He and Rhapsody decided to call her Emily.

* * *

**Only one chapter left now. Till tomorrow.**


	6. Reflecting the Past

**This is the last chapter of this story. Thanks for all your reviews. Happy reading.**

* * *

**Reflecting the Past**

Birthdays within the Potter family were always big event with several friends coming over to celebrate the special days together. And with the high number of children living in those families it was always loud and wild. Not that any of the adults minded it a bit. So on 31st July 1990, Harry's tenth birthday Potter Manor, where James and Lily had moved in after their third child Thomas was born, simply because there was much more space for the growing family, was filled with laughter of children.

James and Lily had stopped having more children after Jasmine in April 1988 because four were more than enough for them. They had two boys and two girls which was perfect in their opinion. Hadrian now had three children and he and Rhapsody planned on having at least two more. Both wanted a big family. And it wasn't as if they couldn't afford that many children. Hadrian mad more profit with MoD Enterprises in a month than he made as an auror in six months. And aurors were paid well, especially senior aurors like him.

Among the family friends were the Longbottoms with their now three children Neville, Reese and Leila. Then there were the Tonks with Dora, Draco and Elleanora who was called Ellie for short. The Bones came with Susan, Theodore, Michael and Rachel; the Prewett brothers came with their pregnant wives, coincidentally also twins like them, and Sirius and Charlene with Stella. Though Charlene was pregnant again. She would give birth in four months. From what the healers said it would be a boy this time. Of course Remus was there too, though he was still single.

* * *

After the celebrations had come to an end James invited Hadrian, Sirius, Remus and Frank to a men's night which they after clearing it with their wives agreed to. James opened a bottle of good wine and handed out the glasses. Lily didn't like him drinking hard alcoholic drinks with the children in the house, but she didn't say no to a good wine now and again. Remus was still the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts and his students loved him. He had now taken over for Professor McGonagall as head of Gryffindor too. Professor Flitwick was still head of Ravenclaw, but he had declined the offer of becoming Deputy Headmaster. So Professor Sprout got that position. The head of Slytherin was now Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher.

Remus loved his job and was incredibly thankful that thanks to the PR offensive that MoD Enterprises had started werewolves weren't ostracized like they had been before anymore. There were still tensions, but all students at Hogwarts knew that he was a werewolf and took wolfsbane potion. Information went a long way to taking away fear.

Sirius worked for the Ministry as an Unspeakable while Hadrian, Frank and James were still aurors. Though Frank was scheduled for a promotion to Head Auror at the end of the year when Moody would retire.

"I still wonder about that prophecy Dumbledore went on about." Frank suddenly said. "He said it would be either Harry or Neville who could defeat Voldemort, but in the end it was Hadrian who killed him. Not that I wasn't incredibly grateful that my son was spared that fate."

"Yes, that is strange and I wondered about it too. Did he tell you why he was so convinced it would be one of our sons?" James asked.

"No, he only gave me the warning. And from then on he was somehow strange." Frank answered.

"So none of you knew the wording of the prophecy?" Remus asked surprised.

"No, we didn't. We asked, but he said it was too dangerous for the wording to come out." James grumbled.

"He asked a lot with that little information. I thought he told you the wording. Though the recording is strange. It has switched to fulfilled." Sirius said.

More he couldn't reveal as he had to keep his job a secret. Hadrian pondered if he should tell them. He had now been here for ten years. They were his family and friends. The world had changed and no extremist would be able to rise as long as they all were cautious to not overlook the signs. There even was a ward around Azkaban that prevented the dementors from leaving. He decided to do it. Only Rhapsody knew his secret so far because he didn't have secrets of that magnitude from his wife. He wanted to stay happily married.

"I know the wording." He therefore said to the astonishment of the other four.

"But how?" Frank asked.

"Because I was shown it. I was shown it in a pensieve memory of Dumbledore. It goes like this:

_**The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches … born to those who have thrice defied him … born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal … but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die by the hand of the other … as neither can life while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."**_

Hadrian recited the words that had overshadowed his life from memory.

"Wow," Remus exclaimed baffled "but if that prophecy is real, how could you kill Voldemort? Your birthday is 1st July."

"Not really," Hadrian admitted and threw a silencing spell at the door to prevent that others accidentally overheard their conversation. "What I tell you now is my biggest secret and has to be kept one. The only other person alive that knows is Sody. You can tell your wives, but nobody else can find out."

He looked at them seriously. They all understood how serious Hadrian took this. They looked at each other and then nodded.

"Alright, my story sounds unbelievable, but I swear everything is true. Let's start with my birth name. I wasn't born Hadrian Potter, but Harry Potter. In fact I am the future self of your oldest son, James." Hadrian started, shocking the others.

"What? How?" James exclaimed not sure if he wanted to believe this.

"Just wait until I have finished my story, then you will understand." Hadrian said patiently. "To start understanding my story you need to know that time travel is possible beyond the capabilities of time-turners. Though the ability is limited to one special person, the so-called Master of Death. I don't know if you are familiar with the legend of the Deathly Hallows, but I can tell you they exist. One of them is your invisibility cloak, James, the second is the Peverell family ring and the third is the Elder Wand which was last used by Albus Dumbledore who won it in a fight with Gellert Grindelwald."

Harry wouldn't tell them the procedure. It was his secret and he would only pass it on in the family grimoire he was writing. The main Potter family had one and Hadrian had decided to set one up for his branch too.

"I will keep the specifics to myself as that knowledge is really dangerous in the wrong hands. Just believe me, it is possible. In my timeline things didn't go as well as they did here. In fact they went beyond bad. I travelled back in time from 15th August 1998. On 2nd May of the same year I had killed Voldemort in a big battle at Hogwarts. Well, killed isn't really true, it was a backfiring killing curse. To give you an idea why he was only killed in 1998 and not in 1981, I need to start at the beginning. Originally the information that Death Eaters were branded with the Dark Mark on their arm was only found out in February 1981 by Dumbledore, who was told by Snape who had turned spy for the Light because Voldemort targeted me and therefore Lily. He still loved her. But Dumbledore didn't give the aurors that knowledge.

"The man kept too many damned secrets and is indirectly responsible for many deaths among those fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Voldemort very nearly had won the war. Barty Crouch's actions came too late because the Ministry was full of Voldemort's spies. They killed the Order members one by one. The McKinnons, the Bones, Fabian and Gideon, Dorcas, they all died. James and Lily and Alice and Frank went into hiding under a Fidelius charm. With that the real tragedy started for me. For some reason not James and Frank were the secret keepers. Dumbledore told you to use somebody else and offered to be secret keeper.

"I don't know who you used Frank, but you cancelled the charm too early. You were attacked and ended in the long-term spell damage ward of St. Mungo's for over-exposure to the cruciatus curse. Your mother raised Neville, but she and the rest of your family squashed his sense of confidence because they wanted him to be you and couldn't accept he was different. I think you know what I mean." Hadrian said and got a startled nod from Frank.

"Now the charms had been set up one week before Halloween." Hadrian continued only for James to interrupt him.

"Wait a moment; we put the charm in place in September after we were constantly found, not in October."

"Yes, but there it only happened in October. Here you followed my example. Well, Lily and James secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew and you more or less told everybody it was Sirius to confuse the Death Eaters and Voldemort." Hadrian explained.

"Sweet Merlin, Peter was a Death Eater. So he betrayed us?" James asked understanding the message Hadrian implied.

"Indeed. On Halloween Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow after Peter told him the location. Voldemort killed you first, James. You had been careless and left your wand in the living room when he blasted the door open. I saw the memory in an incident around Christmas 1997. So I know exactly what happened and I can tell you it was horrible to see him murder my parents through his eyes accompanied with his thoughts on the matter. You tried to stop him, but he simply used the killing curse on you. Then he went upstairs where Lily had fled with me, strange to think that honestly. I've become used to think of you as my cousin and not my father. Well, she tried to shield me by placing me in my crib and standing in front of it.

"Voldemort offered her to spare her, because Snape had begged for him to let her live because he wanted her. But of course she refused to let him simply kill me. So he killed her too. Then he tried to kill me, but thanks to my mother's willing sacrifice the curse backfired. Voldemort was ripped from his body and fled as a wraith. His horcruxes kept him alive." Hadrian explained.

"Hagrid was the first one to arrive on the scene. I don't know to this day why Dumbledore sent him. I mean, while he has resistance against spells as a half-giant, he isn't allowed to use magic himself thanks to the Ministry messing up after the Chamber of Secrets was opened the first time."

"Wait, the first time?" Remus asked.

"My second year at Hogwarts was the second time, but I will come to that later, Remus." Hadrian promised and got a nod.

"Sirius who had a bad feeling was the second person to appear. He had tried to check up on Peter only to find him gone and no traces of a fight. Sirius tried to get me from Hagrid, but Hagrid refused, stating that he had orders from Dumbledore." Hadrian continued.

The other groaned.

"It would have been impossible for anybody to argue with Hagrid over anything if he had orders from Dumbledore." James commented. "Hagrid would have followed them without listening to any arguments no matter how valid they were."

"Yes, Sirius seemed to realise that too. He let Hagrid take me and offered his motorbike to take me to Dumbledore. Then he went and hunted Peter down. He went slightly insane in his grief over my parents' deaths and not being allowed to take care of me." Hadrian said.

"I would." Sirius said softly. "Thinking about losing James and Lily hurts too much to even think what I would do."

"I was brought to Aunt Petunia." Hadrian was immediately interrupted by James.

"What do you mean, Petunia? Lily's sister? We left very clear instructions where our children should go to in case something happened to us. First was Sirius, second was Alice, third Andromeda. After that any member of the Order willing to take you in. We explicitly forbid that the horse-faced harpy ever got to see any of our children." James ranted. "Why would anybody place you there?"

"Bloodwards. Dumbledore later explained to me that Mum's sacrifice gave me a really strong protection and that he managed to extend that protection over the home where my mother's blood lived. And the only remaining living relative was Aunt Petunia, so in his 'infinite wisdom'," everybody heard the sarcasm dripping from Hadrian's voice "the old man decided to place me there, knowing full well that he was 'condemning me to ten hard years'. His exact words. But seemingly the precious little saviour of the wizarding world had to be kept away from his fame to not get too big a head and listen to all the rubbish Dumbledore sprouted. While he knew a lot, he never considered the feelings of people that followed him. Sometimes it seemed they were all only figures on his chessboard. The wards would work as long as I could call the place where Mum's blood lived home. That was a pretty risky gamble.

"Had I only once expressed my exact feelings for that place and those bastards the wards would have fallen faster than he could blink. And safe in his words only included alive. Not happiness, not being loved or even being well-fed. Only alive. I must have gone hungry and been hurt more times than I care to remember before I ever found out about being a wizard on my eleventh birthday from Hagrid." The others looked really grim hearing that.

"While I was sent to Durskaban Sirius tracked down Peter, but the rat managed to blame Sirius for his betrayal and made it look as if Sirius had killed him and twelve innocent muggles that were behind him when he fired an explosion curse. Apparently it ripped the whole street open. He transformed into his animagus form and fled through the sewers. Sirius was arrested, nothing was properly investigated, not even mentioning that nobody thought it prudent to at least question him why he did it, and sent to Azkaban for life. He was presented in the press as Voldemort's secret second in command. Dumbledore did nothing, believing that Sirius had been the traitor and had killed the thirteen people." Hadrian told them.

"But Crouch made sure that every Death Eater or sympathizer was put on trial and questioned under veritaserum because it would have been a waste of information to not do so. On top the public was assured that nobody who was innocent went to Azkaban and that no true Death Eater went free." Frank protested.

"And who suggested that practice and worked on Barty for months on end to make sure it was really done? That was me. I knew what had happened in my timeline and I needed to prevent certain things. Do you think I would have travelled back if I had seen another way? I hold no mercy for Death Eaters and pureblood extremists, you know that, but I hold the law in very high regard. It was me who placed the information about the Dark Mark with the aurors early on. It was me who wrote all those anonymous letters about Death Eaters and sympathizers. And except for the ring in the Gaunt shack I destroyed all the horcruxes that Voldemort had made. I knew from my time what and where they were. I knew how to destroy them too, but for that to be possible without risking fiendfire I needed to get a certain tool. Getting the horcruxes also was a little tricky, but I worked out how to manage that.

"A diary was given to Lucius Malfoy who hid it in his secret room under the living room floor. In my time it was used to open the Chamber of Secrets by possessing an innocent student. Said student, Ginny Weasley to be precise, was forced to let the basilisk out which led to it petrifying several muggleborn students, among them my best friend Hermione. Thankfully that time around nobody died. We were really lucky that everyone only saw reflections or through an object. The only direct hit was Nick, but as a ghost he couldn't die twice." Hadrian explained.

"Wait a minute," Remus interrupted "there is a basilisk at Hogwarts and you didn't tell us before?"

"Correction, there was a basilisk at Hogwarts, Remus. I said that I needed a tool to destroy the horcruxes and said tool was a goblin made dagger drenched in basilisk venom. Worked splendidly. Though the cup of Hufflepuff in the Lestrange vault got a few drops of pure venom onto it. Much less suspicious to do while clearing out that vault." Hadrian offhandedly said. "I killed the basilisk again during the Christmas break of 1980. I needed the venom and I doubt it would have been cooperative. On top I didn't want to risk it ever hurting students again. I had a personal vendetta against it too. Not only did it petrify Hermione, it also bit me and without Fawkes crying onto the wound and healing me I would have died with twelve."

James and Sirius looked especially pale hearing that. Frank and Remus were only marginally better and had their hands tightly closed around the armrests of their armchairs.

"This time I went for the easy solution. I borrowed one of Hagrid's roosters. A rooster's cry is deadly for a basilisk. Worked like a charm and I really didn't fancy trying to convince the Sorting Hat to let me use Gryffindor's sword again, not to mention risking getting poisoned again. While I was at Hogwarts I destroyed two horcruxes. The locket of Slytherin which I had found in a cave with a lake inside which was filled with inferi. The protection was a basin with a potion that caused the drinker to relive their worst memories and caused physical pain on top of it. I think the best description would be a mix of dementor's influence and cruciatus from what I have seen of the effects. My victim was an imperiused grindylow. The second one was Ravenclaw's lost diadem which Voldemort had found in Albania where the Grey Lady, who is really Helena Ravenclaw, had hidden it after she stole it from her mother Rowena. It was hidden in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts. I got it at the same time I went there for the basilisk. My invisibility cloak came in handy I tell you. Both horcruxes fell to my new dagger." Harry took a gulp from his glass, all this talking was making him thirsty.

"The one horcrux I couldn't get was the one in the Gaunt shack. I was no expert at wards at the time. So my only choice was leaving it to Dumbledore. I let him know that there were strong wards that reeked of Voldemort through Fabian and Gideon. I didn't know if he would fall to any protections on the ring, but I could hardly tell him what I knew. He would only have obliviated me or manipulated me again. No, once was already too much. Thanks to his manipulations and keeping too many damned secrets my first life was hell. I didn't have a proper childhood at the Dursleys. I was neglected at best and abused at worst. I had no normal year at Hogwarts either." Hadrian said.

"What do you mean, Hadrian?" Remus asked.

And Hadrian told them all about his six years at Hogwarts, how much Dumbledore had kept from him, how he had played with his life, setting up tests for him and not giving him the knowledge that was his by right. Dumbledore only had had Voldemort in his sight, not the people around or the Death Eaters that were at least as much of a problem as Voldemort himself. He told about the incompetency and corruption of the Ministry under Fudge and Bagnold and how it had led to the Death Eaters that got away amassing wealth and political power. He described the war as best as he could and all the lives it had cost. On question of Sirius Hadrian also informed them how that idiotic government came to pass.

They were all massively impressed with Hadrian's magical progress, especially his patronus with thirteen. James, Sirius and Remus got a real laugh out of Harry's story of running the DA right under Umbridge's nose. Though they groaned hearing how inefficient the Order had operated. Moody clearly was a better leader than Dumbledore had been. They all held their breaths when Hadrian described his finding out that he was the last horcrux. James tried to deny that, but Hadrian calmly continued telling his story.

"Dumbledore has known from the beginning and set me up to die. Sure he held out a little hope that I might survive thanks to Voldemort making a mistake in taking my blood for his resurrection. But he wasn't sure and rather than giving me false hope, he went with keeping me completely in the dark until times were so desperate that I would sacrifice myself only to end Voldemort. After the battle things first seemed to look up. Kingsley was named interim Minister, the Death Eaters were arrested, well, those that had survived the battle, too many in my opinion, and were known of course and people buried their dead friends and family members. The really bad part happened soon after that. The battle was in May, but by August the pureblood faction already had their full power back. Voldemort was only the tip of the iceberg. They had the Ministry under control and made laws to control the halfbloods and muggleborns. The only law that was permanently repelled was the one concerning muggleborn registration.

"Instead they used other ways to completely control them. There was nothing I could do against it. While I was the hero for everybody, they already had found a way to neutralise my influence playing political games. The reigns of Fudge and Bagnold left them with too much money, not to mention they had the most profitable businesses under them. They had weakened those that they wanted to take over with terror and blackmail already, so after they had ensured them staying out of Azkaban, they bought them or got rid of the owners if they hadn't already done that. Some were also taken over by making the underage heir their wards. An ironclad marriage contract if the child fit into the family and the business was legally theirs.

"No, in my time I would have been forced to marry some pureblood princess who won the auction for me. She would then have been in control over me thanks to that law. Hermione quickly agreed to marry Ron Weasley to avoid being given a husband. Just to spite her and me for being substantial for Voldemort's fall they would have married her to some brutal pureblood bigot. Ginny had fed me love-potions since I was sixteen. I got free after the battle because Kreacher checked my food and drinks for them. Too many girls wanted to have the defeater of Voldemort as their boyfriend. I found a way to travel back in time. My goal was to destroy all horcruxes as fast as possible, cut the money from the Death Eaters and pureblood supremacists and make sure that as many people as possible survived. Though Dumbledore and a few others were at the end of that list. I started when I arrived here. I had brought all my money, books on history and important successful businesses in both muggle and magical world and some other things with me. I invested where I could make most money and where it would hurt Voldemort and his followers." Hadrian finished his tale.

"Wow, just wow, how does nobody know that?" Sirius asked awed how much his friend / older than normal godson had achieved.

"I don't act openly. I act though a company that I created for exactly that purpose. MoD enterprises." Hadrian said enjoying their gobsmacked faces. "In fact MoD stands for Master of Death."

"You are the mysterious owner of MoD Enterprises? The richest man in the wizarding world?" Remus exclaimed shocked.

"I'm the richest? I didn't know that. I let Regulus take care of the finances. As I got him out of Voldemort's ranks, he kept quiet about everything. And he is great at leading the company. I only give him some instructions what I want to achieve."

"So we basically all owe our lives to you, Hadrian. Without you we wouldn't have the lives we live now." James said.

"I don't want anything for it. The one thing I always wanted was a family to love me that I could love in return and I have that now. I have a funny cousin, two nephews, one of them my godson, and two nieces. Then two boys that are basically my nephews with how they grew on me. I have two sons and a daughter that I love more than life itself, not to forget my beautiful fiery wife. The fortune of MoD will be used to better the wizarding world and to make sure that there will never be a repeat of Voldemort." Hadrian stated. "I have great friends and a good job that I love. I have a house where I can raise my children in peace and more space for more children in the future. What more could I ask for?"

The others couldn't answer that. For James it was unbelievable that his cousin was in reality his eldest son that had travelled through time to save their world. He could fully understand that he wouldn't have wanted to be forced into a loveless marriage. But certain things made sense. He would tell Lily, but nobody else. Hadrian was right. He had all a man could wish for. Thanks to him they had peace. And the loss of Dumbledore, well, they had got over it. It wasn't as if Hadrian had killed him. He only didn't prevent it and after hearing his life-story he couldn't think badly about him for that. Dumbledore had caused or allowed to be caused a lot of harm and hurt for Hadrian.

"Well, this calls for a toast. To Hadrian and to the hope that another time-travel will never be necessary." James said.

"To Hadrian!" The other three chorused and they all drank their mead.

This time all was really well.

* * *

**I couldn't resist that end :) Thanks for reading my story. **


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